The Old and The New

Oddly enough, you can see the pyramids of Giza from a lot of different angles.  People expect to see them in company of sand dunes and camels, but as you drive into Cairo from Alexandria, they come into view in a landscape of traffic lights and mobile phone towers.

Handmade Tools

 Most of our farm tools are handmade by the blacksmith down the road. Handles are bought separately and often don't quite fit. In this case we needed to remove the stump of a dead palm and the axe handle was loose and had to be secured with iron shims. Stump was removed.

Tilted

Life in Cairo these days goes on in many normal ways but at the same time seems sort of out of balance, much like the lines in this photo.  Two young men chat beside an empty refreshment stand along the Nile overlooking the Cairo Tower. I'm not sure what the poles attached by a line are...perhaps part of a stand by the river just beyond the railing, perhaps part of a boat.

A Suitably Heroic Pose

There was a horrible duststorm blowing across the Nile from the west and traffic was pretty much at a standstill. The erection of huge concrete block walls on some of the main downtown streets has really put a nail into Cairo traffic's coffin. A group of young men were laughing and horsing around as we were stopped in traffic and one got up on the railing by the river for the appropriate male Egyptian portrait in a mobile phone.

Strange Dry Spiky Thing

While visiting Adam Henein's garden, I noticed a string of objects hanging from a tree in the sun. It's a long time since I've seen dried okra, which the Nubians and Sudanese use to make a dish known as wayka. Wayka is a stew of ground beef, tomatoes and the ground dried okra. It has a rather interesting texture and is often eaten scooped up in bread. Delicious.

Finishing The Job

Homework is universal. These boys are doing theirs in the garden of sculptor Adam Henein. I can't think of anywhere more comfortable.

Palm and Pyramids

A dirt road into the distance, the pyramids of Abu Sir on the horizon just past the green fields, and a lone date palm standing sentry by a canal. Egypt's countryside.

Balancing Act

If you live in Egypt, you've seen the donkeys piled high with berseem clover in the winter, a block of beautiful greenness that extends way beyond the donkey's sides and high into the air, often with a young boy perched on top. How do they do that anyway? It's all in the packing. The berseem isn't tied but merely balanced.

Just For Fun

I have a friend who photographs competitive bodybuilders all over the world. Ulrich comes to Cairo about once a year to check in on the Egyptians who are competing and to take videos and photos of them. He likes to make the photos interesting with good settings and so on, and I've been helping him with that for several years. So yesterday we were out in the desert watching a bunch of bodybuilders freeze to death in a chilly wind while flexing on camels. Only in Egypt...

A Twofer

You can only eat so much cabbage at a time, but you don't want to miss out on the wheat crop. So what is a farmer to do? In this case he just planted the wheat around the cabbages that were still in the field. Should last him the rest of winter.