Telling our stories

So now at last we are back in the states, with stories to tell and pictures (lots of pictures) to share. Taking a cue from our Egyptian host, Maryanne Stroud, I will post a picture or two every morning with some commentary...and by the way, I enabled the comment field; feel free to respond to my ramblings!

This picture (taken by Mohammed aka The Photography Elf aka Shutterbug) represents a couple of things all at once to me. First of all, Egypt runs on donkeys. Farmers, vendors, the everyday folk, all use donkeys to pull loads, carry items, as riding animals and everything else possible. Sometimes impossible. As Maryanne has noted, if you waved a wand and made all the donkeys disappear, Egypt would come to a total, grinding, inoperable halt. This particular longear is pulling a load of berseem (alfalfa) while his handlers laugh and stand on the shafts for the Shutterbug. Which leads me to thought #2: the country and village women and children are beautiful. In the areas around Al Sorat Farm they are accustomed to seeing Maryanne and her riders, and as we passed through their fields and towns we were greeted with open smiles and friendly laughter. The children call "'allo! 'allo!" By western standards these people are "poor," but look if you will at the faces as I post pictures; they are happy, well-fed and overall healthy people. One needs to put ones "western eyes" away here and see instead, families living lives as they have for generations.