Dishwashing

Think of this young lady the next time your dishwasher is on the fritz. When all you have is a hand pump, doing dishes is pretty complicated. Soapy water in one pot, clean in another, and enough dishes for a huge family.

A Blessed Eid

Tonight it was announced that Ramadan officially ended today and the four day Eid el Fitr (known in our family as "The Cookie Feast) will begin tomorrow morning. After fasting from food, water, and cigarettes from dawn to dusk for 30 days, families will spend four days on a sugar high eating lovely powdered sugar covered shortbread, sometimes filled with dates, nuts, honey, or turkish delight. There are about four other traditional cookies for the Eid, but the kahk is my favourite. Virtually everything will be closed with the exception of the odd gas station or 24 hour pharmacy. This young girl from the farms near me looks like she's more than ready for some cookies.

The traditional greeting is "Eid Mubarak" or blessed eid. I figure that we've had more than enough Mubaraks, so I used the English. It will be understood too.

Light In The Darkness

A little girl lights a candle to the Virgin Mary in the Moakalla, otherwise known as the Hanging Church because it was built in the 7th century suspended over the gate of a Roman fortress, likely on the site of an even older church. When you visit this famous Coptic church, there are windows through which you can look through the floor to see the walls of the fortress far below your feet.

The Children

I love taking photos of the village children out here. They get such a kick out of seeing themselves in pictures or on the screen of the camera. The countryside children, while financially poor, have lots of good fresh food...no junk food here...clean air and lots of room to play outdoors with toys that they have to make themselves. Not such a bad life.

The Women

There is a small grouping of about four houses on a trail that I love to ride in the countryside just north of Sakkara. The track is narrow and can only be navigated by donkey, motorcycle, on foot or by horse. The children who live here are always happy to see us come by and greet us politely. The women are also very welcoming and willing to be photographed, something that isn't so common out here. It's pretty hard to get a good photograph from horseback, but this time I did and I have to take them into town to have them printed for the women and the children.

Finals Tonight! Egypt Is On Hold

Egyptians are totally crazy about football, soccer, whatever you want to call it. I'm on my way to a neighbour's to watch the Egypt/Ghana match in Angola for the Africa Cup. I'm not a football fan ordinarily, but to see if they can pull off the third Africa Cup win in a row...tonight I am! Like everyone else here.

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.

Good Morning, Little Girl

Bunduq seems to be bestowing a greeting as we pass a village girl on her way to the water plant to fill a jerry can with purified water. Most of us out here depend on our wells, which are more reliable in delivering good water than the city taps are as long as they are deep enough, but the well water is very hard due to the calcium in the soil and often has a slightly sulphurish taste. So a number of the larger farms have built reverse osmosis water plants and made taps available to the farmers who collect the pure water for babies and drinking water.