DAY 20 - VILLAGE LIFE
SYNOPSIS: I walked for about 4 km each way to reach one of the lesser famous ancient temples of this area, the temple of Seti I. The best part of it was not the temple but the walk and the opportunity to watch rural life; people and animals.
Joanna claimed that it was way too far to walk. Joanna is from Great Britain and fell in love 8 years ago with an Egyptian. He turned out to be a wife beater and she broke up with him after two years but did not want to leave here. She now is the cleaning lady at hotel Kareem working part-time for about $100 per month. When the tourists left, all the employees at the hotel were sent home. She is the first to be back now that we are here.
But Joanna was wrong. Not only was the walk doable, but it was a treasure trove to observe rural life around here. The path to the temple followed one of the Nile irrigation channels. The road was narrow and dusty and in many parts bundles of grass, hay, and greens were strewn across the road since animals were tied up outside the house and would graze there. There was no motorized traffic on that road, but bikes and donkey carts went back and forth. Frequently, there were benches lined up near the channel, often sheltered from the sun with simple straw fences where people would gather and along the way I observed people doing laundry, burning trash, or just hanging out. There were painted houses, run-down houses, and upper-scale villas. There were tiny repair shops, bread ovens, and animal stables. It was a colorful variety of simple rural life. The people were friendly, except for a woman who would not stop shouting over the fact that I took a picture of her goats and did not pay her.
It is very hard to photograph people here. Either they want a bakshish for every picture you take or they refuse pictures all together. A National Geographic shot got wasted today since two women who were squatting in a doorway of brown sun-dried mud bricks in the most gorgeous and colorful outfits, refused to be photographed. It was a perfect shot starting with the colors, the composition, the light; I would have given almost anything to take that picture, but they did not budge. Why?!
Animals, houses, benches, scenery – all that was easy to photograph and will comprise the bulk of the blog today. I still have my big D-90 camera. The advantage is that it is fast. The disadvantage, it is huge, heavy and ostentatious given the surroundings here. I hope that the pictures speak for themselves, but here are a few observations:
There was trash in the river and near the riverbed; everywhere. This is nothing new. I have observed this in the Middle East just about anywhere. Only Iran was different, but then, it does not count as part of the Middle East. When I recently talked to an Egyptian about the fact that from Egypt to Syria every country is dirty he replied: “We are dirty on the outside, but clean on the inside”. Well that’s a way of looking at it. I only don’t know how that goes along with the constant cheating. Mountain Man pulled the religion card on one of the guys who was trying to extract four times the going rate of him. He asked him where in the Koran it says that you should screw over foreigners?! The man profusely apologized and dropped the price instantly. I guess, I should try that more often. I don’t mind paying twice. But above and beyond that, I feel abused.
What impressed me on this walk was the close proximity of animals and people. They still live side by side here, share the road, the riverbed, and the gardens. And what follows is the close interaction of people. These benches create a sense of community between old and young, families, locals, and even strangers. More than once was there an invitation to a cup of tea and to sit down on one of the house benches.
Teacher Asab invited us for tea. But after he exhausted his three English sentences, it was hard to communicate with him. But the tea spoke for itself. He was proud to have foreign guests and waived over every local who would pass to sit down with us. The head master of his school accepted. His English was even less than Asab’s. I guess, that is still possible in rural Egypt even among the educated.
One little incident was that I got bitten by a very angry, very vicious dog with puppies. She was nursing her little ones near the river, quite a distance from me. But I stopped to take her picture and she did not like that one bit. With exposed teeth, snarling, and barking, she charged and attacked me. She snapped at my leg and not jokingly. But as my baggy clothes have come in handy before, this time they saved me from a potentially serious bite wound. The dog got my pants and ripped out a sizable piece. At that point I fought back, kicked and yelled and made the dog retreat at least as far as to rescue the piece of cloth it dropped. I was not giving that up. The villagers stood by at a distance and watched...
And where was Spirit Man taming the wild beasts when you need him?!
I took the pants to a tailor who will stitch it all together again.
There is never a dull moment around here. :-)
Good night.