On my shopping venture yesterday, the woman who takes care of the postboxes called out to me to say that my books had arrived at the post office. Sure enough, I went this morning and picked up the order. Egyptian post offices are a hive of activity because in addition to mail, they handle the government pension and other social security checks. Their service and efficiency improved vastly a few years ago under the leadership of Alaa El Din Mohamed Fahmy. Mr Mubarak recently appointed him Minister of Transportation. Poor man. Now he is in charge of Egypt's notorious train system.
The packaging was a bit worse for wear. If they could only tell the story of their journey to southern Egypt! It took almost 2 months from the date that Amazon shipped them. Last week, Amazon was good enough to refund the shipping charges since the estimated arrival date had long passed.
So sitting on the balcony with a cool lemonade I pondered which one to read first. Decisions. Decisions. No matter which comes first, all will be savoured.
7P.M. Update: Burning Fields
Just before sunset, two men set a series of fires around the perimeter of the harvested sugar cane field behind our flat and the skies filled with smoke. The man had just finished cleaning the pool so he was not pleased. Black cinders now float on the water's surface.
The men dragged bundles of dry cane leaves to spread the fire. The whole field was burned in about 15 minutes.
This is my first attempt at video. When I informed the Time Traveller that 'our' fields were being set ablaze, he said that now was the time for me to learn. I will try to improve the quality with more practice. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment