Clip It And Don't Lose It.

It has been ages since I've posted to the blog and truly I feel bad about that. Life has a way of getting complicated and busy, especially here in Egypt where nothing is as easy as it should be, nor as easy as it was some years ago. Power failures, internet failures and no time to leave the farm due to work that we are doing here all make it hard to take photos and post.

But I had two women who wanted to go to see the Menawat Sunday market last week, and I have some lovely photos of a country market in Giza. One friend needed a donkey harness for the donkey at her farm that hauls the manure cart, while the other was a visitor who was up for anything interesting...and the Sunday market is interesting. Imagine all the goods in a large supermarket unwrapped, unpacked and then distributed along narrow dusty streets and you have roughly the idea of a village market. You will find EVERYTHING there if you have the time to look for it. One of the things that I noticed that brought a huge grin to my face was this enormous pile of wooden clothes pins. My housekeeper is a tiny woman and the washing line at the house is quite tall, so clothes pins go missing regularly. She often will just tug at a sheet and the pins separate flying in opposite directions. When I saw this, I knew that I needed a shot of this place where the missing clothes pins must go to breed.

Consummate Carriers

Egyptian women carry the universe on their shoulders. Not only are they working hard to care for their families, but many of them live the way I remember my mother living when I was young, without a car, having only the basic mechanical aids to help clean (we were turned loose with old socks on to polish the floors), and being pretty much solely responsible for their homes and children. So most of them walk a lot and often are carrying offspring. 

Just In Case You Were Wondering

Life in Egypt is just a teeny bit schizzy these days. On one hand we have a bunch of bozo Salafi parliamentarians who want to ban ballet because it is pornographic, and on the other hand we have mannequins modeling outfits like these in a normal upper middle class mall in Maadi. Are these the new Salafi militia uniforms?

Sharing Sunlight

This was Tuesday and Tuesday afternoon is the Rural Wellness Initiative mobile vet clinic. A friend of the group came along with us and took a break sitting on an upturned rowboat.  She found herself sitting among a group of women and children who took great delight in trying to teach her Arabic. Yes, the woman in niqab as well, who turned out to have quite the sense of humour.

Another Sign Of The Times

Well, after all, the MB are also known to be shrewd businessmen.

Attacked!

My sincere apologies for not posting for a while but my MacBook got attacked by a Trojan that was hijacking programs on my computer and using up all my internet allowance. I've had to have technicians clean it out and we are now trying to reconstruct my data which was saved but I worry might be infected. Bear with me.

Meanwhile, yesterday was the birth date of young Khaled Alaa Abdel Fattah, whose parents are Alaa and Manal, two of the first Egyptian bloggers that I found when I started my own blog. Most of their work is in Arabic and they are second or third generation activists who have been working to improve life in Egypt most of their lives. Alaa was arrested by the military on charges that are so obviously false it hurts to even think about it. He is still in detention and missed the birth of his first son, just as his father missed the birth of Alaa's sister Mona, another activist here. So everyone wish Khaled a happy birth day and a speedy reunion with his father.

Don't Mess With Egyptian Women

I generally post my photos from Cairo/Giza, but today is very special for all of us in Egypt and when I saw this photo I knew it was the perfect photo for Egypt today.

The Family Motorcycle

Motorcycles are becoming more and more common here as life is more expensive and cars and gas move out of reach of many families. There isn't much point in worrying about safety when you see a family of four on a motorbike. At least the girls are wearing baseball caps to keep the sun off.

Local Tourists

It was heartening to see Egyptians visiting Giza in the absence of foreign tourists. There were school trips and simply friends wandering around enjoying a chance to see the pyramids without the crowds. Many of them took the chance to ride camels and horses as well, which helps the economy here. I loved the flag cape.

Business Is Slow

A young woman gazes at her tourist trinkets at the Great Pyramid. We were visiting and didn't see much more than half a dozen tourists. It's tough but to be very honest I didn't see anyone at death's door despite one little boy who was selling postcards telling me how tough things were. "No money, no Pepsi" "Just as well no Pepsi. That stuff will kill you, kid".

On The Phone in The Ferry

We were driving down the Mariouteya on the way to a man who sells those wonderful rag rugs. I like them for covering chairs and cushions. On our way I noticed a small iron ferry boat and made a mental note to try to get a photograph of it. On our way back I spotted it again and we stopped. Sometimes there is quite a way between bridges out here and these homemade ferry boats are important. The woman in the boat was chatting on her mobile phone.

Using Every Corner

Under a busy bridge in Maadi, you find some space where women selling homemade bread sit hoping people will buy. A fruit seller with a cart of rather enticing bananas is there as well. People find any spot at all to conduct business.

Camel Riding 101

Most tourists want to try riding a camel while they are visiting Giza, but it isn't really something within their usual bounds of experience. So once they find themselves about two metres off the ground on an amazingly enormous animal that is actually moving, a certain level of anxiety - or even abject fear - takes hold. Happily, most of them make it back in one piece.

Shyness

We were driving behind the girls in the truck who were laughing and waving at us until I stuck the camera out the window. As soon as they camera disappeared they were laughing again.

Making The Promise

Last night one of my grooms got engaged. His fiancee has been to university apparently. The engagement party was held in the neighbouring village of Abu Sir and involved a gift of jewelry worth several thousand Egyptian pounds to the prospective bride followed by dancing and general celebration.

Street Crossing School

Anyone who has ever tried to cross the road in Cairo will have enormous respect for the survivors of the attempt. So how do they learn to do that? Obviously, they start very young.

Woman Waiting

We were out for a morning ride in the countryside and on our way back we found her sitting in the shade watching over a pump that was helping to distribute the irrigation water. I asked if I could take her picture and she nodded yes. I wasn't surprised at her agreement as she's one of my neighbours and they've all gotten used to me photographing all sorts of thing. The women here are so beautiful in their simplicity.

Green Wool

Driving into the Wissa Wassef compound we found one of the daughters supervising the dyeing of the wool used for weaving their famous tapestries. They use natural dyes from the plants grown on the premises.

Woman And Goat

This is simply one of the most lovely photos I've ever seen of our village women. Kelly went out for a walk along one of our riding trails one afternoon and in one cluster of homes, the children and women all asked for their photos to be taken. As soon as my knees are better I'm heading out to deliver copies of the pictures to the women and children as Kelly printed them before she left.

The Perfect Dress

I live outside Cairo and my kids live in New York, two cities separated by an ocean or two and joined by a unique joie de vivre and a twenty four hour clock. I couldn't handle living in Manhattan although I do enjoy visiting it every so often. Walking through Union Square in June I could barely keep up with all the activities at a weekend street fair. This young woman in a wedding dress and white baseball cap talking on a mobile phone just seemed perfect.