Dan Jackson/Manifest Photography -Haggadah Project

I drew the drapes but kept opening them to pear outside. There were people milling about between the busses buying tickets, smoking, laughing, arguing, loading & unloading luggage, and goods from neighbouring farms including the odd chicken and I’m pretty sure I heard a sheep. There was a communal washing station. A cement trough plumbed with copper faucets used for cleaning hands and feet before prayer. All around it’s perimeter were prayer mats. Except for a few of the drivers Mohammed and I were the only ones not dressed in the long drab cotton robes worn on the farms and in the small villages. When he saw me watching the spectacle he muttered “much suffering” thoughtfully. The Egyptian Government does not allow visitors to see unsanitized Egypt and one of the primary functions of a local guide is to obstruct that view. Mohammed could get in trouble for this characterization I’m sure. But it’s the truth as he sees it. I said “what can be done about it?” He said he didn’t know.