Here By Glimpses Known

[wayfaringwordhack]

O the myriad ways of peddling wares and getting one's work done in Egypt:

Any idea what the guy in the photo on the top left is doing?

He is a bread delivery man, like the one below:

This fellow has lost a round of bread, and a kind citizen has dusted it off and is putting back on the rack.  Yes, that is why you sometimes bite into bread here and think/say, "Hmmm, gritty."

I'm not sure what the guy with the green cart is selling. The cart and donkey driver is a trash collector, and the man with the yellow Dayun get-up sells foul,* an Egyptian specialty made from fava or broad beans.


_______
* Pronounced kind of like "fool," the O's stretching out just a bit more.

Comments

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Very cool. At least someone has found a use for a helmet on his bicycle...

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

LOL, that is some use. ;)

[clarentine]

I like the bread answer better than what it looked like, which is that he was carting around sheets of plywood. Which on one's head is, um. Ow.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes, I thought it looked like wood too!

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

The frame is made of wood and the spines of palm fronds. :) It looks like a wooden grill.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

That would be ow. I think I'd rather drop the plywood than a rack full of bread, though. :P

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm used to seeing women balance things on their heads (in fact, just this afternoon I was sorely tempted to do it myself), but not men! So that's interesting to see. I can't imagine balancing a tray of bread on my head AND bicycling. That's a whole extra layer of difficulty. Next you'll tell me they do this on cables . . . over pits of vipers.

How does the trash collection work? Do people pay him? Is it any trash, or only certain things?

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you see a lot more women than men doing the balancing act, even here in Egypt where it is not that common. I have yet to see the viper pit, but when I do, I'll make sure to take a pic for you. ;)

The trash is an interesting thing. The Coptic population are the ones (the only ones? I'm not sure) that take care of the trash and live in Garbage City. There are different collectors, the ones that look like they are employed by the city, with a "real" garbage truck; the "bekia men," who take things that might look like trash but they fix and or/sell them after; and then there are the guys like the one I photographed, who tend to have their own thing to collect. I've seen those who take only cardboard and paper, and those who take only plastic. There is no real recycling effort made here, but I also sort my garbage to make it easier on those guys who have to dig through everything to find what they collect. I've thought about making a trash post before. Maybe I should. But I'd basically just repeat this. With more pictures. :P

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Oh do do the post--if you feel like it. I think stuff like that is fascinating. It's such a real and distinctive part of life, and often gets ignored.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I would like to take a trip to Garbage City first, but I don't know if I'm up to it. It might be better to do in the winter when the heat is not contributing so much to the smell.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

*definitely* better for a cooler, less-smelly time of year. And don't go anywhere unsafe!

[frigg.livejournal.com]

LOL... my poor husband could never live in Egypt. No wonder he wasn't terribly impressed when he went. :p

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, I often think of C when observing such things. :P

[frigg.livejournal.com]

hehehe... he go so excited when I put out the hand-desinfection I'd been using for my injections (and now no longer need!) - until he noticed it was stinky and perfumed, and he can't eat with stinky hands!

[xjenavivex.livejournal.com]

Happy France Day

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I'm so happy to be in France now.