Dan Jackson/Manifest Photography -Haggadah Project

Mohammed kept saying that people from the villages lead “very simple lives” in an apologetic tone. I kept assuring him that I was content. He said they are often happy to just sit on the banks of the Nile and watch the sunset, read poetry or play music “Very simple life -here everyone very simple.” I wish people could just accept their way of life as different -not better or worse. If you want to make a living in the big city you have to adapt, but you don’t need to be apologize for your roots. Whenever I encounter a particularly attentive waiter in the less touristy parts of Alexandria I wonder if they came from Authentic Egypt. It’s not unlike the immigrants in any big city striving for acceptance through hard work. I asked Mohammed if the hospitality I’ve experienced was due to poverty or religion. He said both. In the touristy areas of Cosmo and all of Quant Egypt it’s obviously economically motivated but in Authentic Egypt I got the impression it was due, at least in part, to religion.