The Camel Market at Birquash

We went to the camel market in Birqash, a town about 20 miles NW of Cairo. It is a major camel market for the country. Camels come in from all over, are bought and sold, and then trucked all over the country.

Camels are an interesting animal. They have the most ungainly look. At the market all the camel were hobbled in some way, so they couldn't go very far, very fast. They have the longest, lucious, thick eyelashes, and the sweetest doe-eyes--the only sweet looking part of the animal. I took an up close picture of them. They also have the ugliest teeth you can possible imagine.

Camel eyelashes

Smiling camel? Look at those teeth.

Prospective buyers would come by a group of camels and start to look them over. They would pull down the camels lips and look at those ugly teeth to see how sound they were and if the gums were healthy. I have no idea what healthy camel gums look like, but their teeth are huge, mostly stained brown, and rather buck-tooth looking. The back ones are flat for grinding and the front ones are sharper for cutting up the grass they eat.

Youngster whose father was an owner with camels for sale.

Buyers would run their hands all over the animal, especially the hump. When camels are healthy and not malnourished the hump is firm and large, almost engorged. Then buyers would have the owners get the animals up and have them run around as best the hobbled beasties could. The owner had wranglers that kept the animals in check and didn't let them get mingle with other herds. If there was such mingling, the wranglers easily cut out the camels because they were all branded and painted with distinctive markings for the market.

There was much haggling over animals and arguments over prices. Mind you we only surmised all of this because we could not understand any of the conversations. However body language is fairly easy to read, and handshakes are unmistakeable. We knew when a deal was consumated.

Loading the camels into trucks was a hoot to watch. Camels can be notoriously uncooperative. We saw one small truck pull up to a loading area. The truck was just a bit short so the camels had to step down about two feet into the truck. For the most part most camels did not have a problem with this. They stepped down into the truck then settled themselves down. They sit down awkwardly, from my point of view, but once settled they are fine. The getting up and down is interesting to watch because it seems so awkward, but the camels seem to do it with ease. Well, this one large camel stepped down into the truck, and settled his front parts down, leaving his back parts up in the air on the loading dock. No amount of cajoling, on the part of the wranglers, could persuade that camel to move his back parts. He was stuck, or so it seemed. Finally the camel settled his back parts down on the loading dock and couldn't move. The wranglers folded up his legs and tried to push him into the truck. This was a big camel and was resisting the pushing. So finally the wranglers go a stout rope and put it around the camel's rump and pulled it into the truck. The next camel walked in just as nice as you please, settled himself down nicely and the wranglers finished their job ad were off. It was a strange sight to see the truck going out of the compound with the camels heads sticking up over the cab of the truck.

This is the camel that had a bit of trouble loading into the truck. Camels all loaded and ready for transport. The market was a facinating excursion. We were very glad we went. Never again will I ever see so many camels in one place at one time. The sounds and smells were ---undescribable. It reminded me of a n enormous corral full of sweaty horses. Camels make a braying sound, not unlike a donkey. They brayed and bawled when moved about, when getting up and down--they grunted then too. They brayed when they were made to do something they didn't want to do, like get into a truck. I am told they spit, but we didn't see any spitting camels. It was one of the most interesting days I have had in Egypt so far.

An Excursion

Hello again,

Last weekend one of the teachers involved as volunteer with an organization called Resala, organized a trip to a small village on the delta.

Resala is a completely volunteer organization which renders aide and assistance to people who are in desperate need.

This was a small farming village. It appears, from all I could make out, that the farmers live in the town/village and go out to the fields which are quite close by. It was along one of the many t

ributaries in the Delta that flow into the main Nile.

Resala, the charity organization, visits a village twice. Once to assess the needs and the second time to actually do the work and distribute the food and clothing,

We collected the teachers going and proceeded to one of the Resala buildings in Cairo to check in and collect our guide for the day--Karem. In the Resala building the organization collects donations of any kind; furniture, clothes, appliances, heaters--you name it and they refurbish ,recycled and reuse. The Resala volunteers spend their time cleaning these things up, refurbishing them and re-distrubuting them to those who are in great need.

Our task on this day was to repair roofs and distribute food and clothing to needy families. The men would do the carrying, lifting and building and the women would distribute the food, etc.

So off we go to the village of Elmanshia, in the governante of Gharbia. (There are 27 governantes in Egypt.) It was well down the delta, more than an hour from Cairo.

The lushness of the delta was surprising to me. There was green eveywhere. You could see bananas growing, vegetables galore, sugar cane and everything else one could consume, growing on the delta. There were orchards full or oranges. I saw my first water buffalo working in a rice paddy---lots of rice paddys. Egypt, like Turkey, is a food producer and can feed its own population. The fruits and vegetables available for purchasein little stalls all over Cairo, attest to that. They also prduce some grapes and make some Egyptian wine. Now you may wonder about that, but it is produced for the foreigners and it isn't too bad, really. It is eminently drinkable, especially with food.

A tuk-tuk

Along the way we stopped for various train crossings which created traffic snarls, with the little Tuk-tuks. These are not allowed in Cairo. They are a three-wheeled motorcycle rickshaw affair. They operate like taxis. They are everywhere in the country. Can you imagine the traffic congestion is they were permitted in Cairo??!

Another train crossing. You can see lots of the tuk-tuks in the congestion. The red and black vehicule just in from of us is a tuk-tuk, and next to him and in front as well.

We arrived in the village in time for prayers. So off everyone went to pray and we non-muslims waited for their return. The children were facinated by us, and very curious. Their image of us comes from television and is often inacurate.

Facinated children--all trying to talk to us in English--Miss, Miss, what is your name." That was all they could say. But I answered them very slowly, telling them my name was Cristina. They know that name.This is one of the teachers from school, Debora, and some of the children that followed us all day.

Work began in earnest with the men carrying beam material and corregated roofing material out to trucks that then took it to the house being worked on. These roofs were not elegant affairs. They were simply beams set on the mud walls, with corregated roofing material nailed to it. There is little rain here, so it is more for the sun than anything.

One of the teachers, Ray, on the tote and carry detail.

Some of the men from our group as well as Resala, beginning repairs to the roof of one of the older buildings.

A bedroom under repair

The bedroom, now completely covered over. Notice the three beds in this room. It is the sleeping room for the family. There is a chest cooler (blue) in the foreground. I am not sure, but I think it was used as a refridgerator. Also note that this room, as did the rest of the house, has a dirt floor, with a rug near the bed.

This is the mayor of the village and a Resala worker. The Mayor is the older gentleman in grey. The Resala worker is a young volunteer active in the organization, from Cairo.

While the men constructed and repaired, The women went around the village with the mayor, who had a little list, and passed out bags of non-perishable food and bags of clothes. Here is one of our teachers with the mayor and a Resala worker checking the bags before giving them to the little man. Here is one of the teachers getting ready to give the bag of goodies to the little may with the mustache. You can see the mayor and some of the Resala workers giving the goodie bags to the old woman in the doorway.

The group of teachersalong with guideand interperter, far left in black t-shirt, who went on this incredible outing.

I saw parts of Egypt I never would have seen otherwise, experienced things I never would have otherwise and I learned a great deal.

This type of outing makes one realize how incredibly lucky we are. We had the opportunity to look through a window at another way of life, alien to ours. Yet these people were not sad. They were all happy to see us, and delighted with their gifts, but not one of them seemed saddened by their circumstances. This is their life, beginning and end of discussion. They are content. The children played in the streets and had a grand day following us around asking our names. We told them. We peeked into their homes and learned how they live. As in all villages, some do better than others, and it with the help of organizations like Resala, that a little relief comes into the lifes of the most needy. I enjoyed my day, and hope to do it again sometime.

The Egyptian Museum

In Front of the

Egyptian Museum Recently one of the teachers who has been here for several years, and an expert on Egypt, took interested teachers on a field trip to the Egyptian Museum. Needless to say I went!

The exhibits were facinating. The Museum is so full of antiquities from all periods of Egypt's history that it will take many visits to take it all in. However the King Tut exhibit, alone, was worth the price of admission.

The famous death mask of King Tut, on display under glass, is what everyone comes to see. It is displayed in the center of a room full of smaller King Tut treasures and funery jars. You can walk completely around the headdress and see the intricate work involved in making it. Of course it is mobbed with people all doing exactly the same thing. But what a spectacular thing to see up close.

Then you can wander and view more treasures taken from his tomb. There is furniture; beds and chairs, and mummy cases.

Of course there is much more to see in this museum. And it will mean many more trips downtown take is all in.