Transfer by bus to first village, near El Minya. Have to go by bus as trains are currently in a state following an accident last month. Plus, for tourists its even worse as government policy means that tourists must travel in special trains only, and groups must be split between carriages..... So, up at 6am to leave very early on our minibus. We go with the H4H local staff: Hany (the boss), Sue (communication), Rebecca (local liason?), Sherif (architect) and Sherif (area coordinator).
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Leaving Cairo we go on the main roads, which seem to be all raised flyovers through the center of town. Traffic is interesting, and confirms the impression that the horn is the most essential component.... Past the pyramids at Giza, half hidden in the haze.
Rather than go up the Nile valley itself, we go via the Western Desert : only the edge but that's wild enough. Interesting looking west - sand until you get to Libyia...
Nonetheless, some green patches around; apparently an irrigation pipeline runs along beside the road and allows some farming. Due to expand soon (a big pipe can be seen waiting to go in a hole!); government projects to create new villages in the desert...
Stop at a cafe once we're nearly there for a briefing from the H4H staff. Hany gives us the low down, and name badges. We're going to work in 4 separate groups.... At the cafe we also pick up a police escort : outside of the Nile delta its obligatory to have an escort at all times.... We go on our way with a Toyota truck full of armed police following.
Eventually we get to the village and the local committee office, via several other villages and narrow roads thru the fields. We seem to have a lot of narrow escapes and near misses with everything from buses down to a convoy of 2 camels and a donkey so loaded down with corn stalks they could barely be seen! Bus driver gets a round of applause.... This local organisation is run in partnership with the local church, which has a nursery school downstairs.
Because of the time (gone 11) its decided we'll work in just 2 groups today, on 2 separate houses. Job is to put on the wooden planks ready for a concrete floor, so the rooms below can be used. We're all keen to get started. Walk thru the village to the house. Dirt streets, lots of rubbish, but people seen cheerful and well fed enough.
Some houses are solid (limestone blocks/bricks and concrete), while others are mud bricks that are falling apart at ground level. Sherif tells us the problem is high ground water table means that there's a lot of water infiltration, and mud brick walls just fall apart because of the humidity. The only way to deal with it is to demolish and rebuild on a concrete/limestone block foundation with a waterproof membrane (polythene sheeting).
At our house, we eventually get up to the roof. Half of the roof is in place, and the 2 rooms we're to do have the beams in place. Job is easy enough - cut thin planks to length, nail down, repeat! We organise into 2 groups as there are 2 rooms and get on with it. Gradually it seems like everyone in the house and half the neighbours are up there with us! At the end, we're running out of planks and are joining odd bits together to make do.... Very hot work; totally exposed and sun beating down. Good atmosphere, very friendly!
We finish the roof, and badger Sherif for more work! Quick confab, and our group head on to another house's roof. This is very simple and its just one section, and the planks are exactly the right length already. With 3 of us up on the roof, and the other's passing up the planks, it only takes about 1/2 hour to nail them all down...
Felt a little like a stage managed event; almost like the villagers had been told to wait until we got there before finishing....
Back to office, and we take the bus to the hotel in El Minya. Only 45 mins says Hany : we decide that Egyptian minutes are obviously a lot longer than British ones....
Possibly the fear factor on the roads makes it feel longer. Interesting overtaking technique : pull out and go for it no matter what's coming and hope they'll move over. Not so good when someone coming the other way has the same idea....
We get settled in to our hotel, and have a 'snack'. More like a 5 course dinner... and far to much for us.... After, some decide to go for a wee walk down the Nile which is only a block from the hotel. However, while milling around outside before setting off we seem to cause nervousness in the policeman sitting outside the hotel. As we start, this turns into shouting, waving and much talking into walkie-talkies. Hotel staff rush out and general mayhem develops. Seems like they didn't anticipate the weird foreigners deciding to go walk about, and don't have anyone to accompany us!
Eventually, some decide to head off anyway, ignoring the fuss (they shall be nameless...). Dot and I decide we'd better not get the hotel guy into too much trouble and wait. After a couple of minutes, we're allowed to head down to the river, accompanied by someone from the hotel with a walkie-talkie. When we get there, a police van pulls up, and a policeman replaces the hotel guy... We walk along the coniche, with our shadow 2m behind, and the police truck chugging along the road... Eventually we turn up towards the town, intending to head back to the hotel. Policeman is not impressed, thinks we're lost! We assure him we're on our way back, and we head along a street back towards the hotel. lots of local character, and we pass almost unnoticed; apart from our escort of a curb crawling poorly tuned diesel police truck!!
Back at hotel, "team time" from Richard. Dinner and bed!
posted by brian.wyld @ 1:52 AM
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