Neighbourly Behaviour

This arrived this afternoon, a box with about eight to nine kilos (about 20 lbs) of fresh mangoes from a neighbour's orchard. Guess what I'm having about 2 meals a day of.

Upstairs, Downstairs

A woman hangs her clothes out on a line from the balcony while a shopkeeper reads his paper on a quiet day near the Coptic Museum.

A Little Help From Friends

A week ago I was hosting a group of high school students at the farm and their bus managed to run off the dirt road into a ditch. My jeep isn't exactly big enough to drag even a small school bus back to the track, but happily my neighbours happened to have a bulldozer handy. They came over and very, very carefully lifted the bus back onto the road. What would we do without our neighbours?

Afternoon Alley

Nothing special happening, just people going about their lives in an ally in Nazlit Semman. Lovely light and the sense of peace that pervades these cubbyholes of existence.

Gracious Living From The Last Century

While some of the buildings in Old Cairo date back about a thousand years, much of downtown Cairo was built in the late 1800's/early 1900's. This building that curves around one of the downtown roundabouts is a lovely example of some of the well maintained buildings in the downtown area.

Cool Water

Water is important in a desert country and many merchants or homeowners install one of these water coolers so that people passing by can have a drink. The only problem is that it is city water and as such possibly contaminated from old water pipes.

The Corner Store

When I came to Egypt in the late 80's most "supermarkets" were about this size. Now we have huge hypermarkets that stock everything under the sun and quite reminiscent of Europe or North America. It's nice to have a lot of choice, but there is something also soothing about going down to the shop on the corner for a packet of sugar and chatting with the owner about the local gossip.