Egypt: Day Ten, Part Three

Caravan along the Nile at Aswan

On the way back to the boat we stop at the Sandalia Papyrus Institute.  Like the carpet school, it includes a demonstration of how papyrus is made, and then an opportunity to buy something.  The paper is made from the inner part of the papyrus plant and the green outer part is used to make baskets.  We all gather around as a woman shows us how the process is done, all by hand.   First she takes a section of papyrus stem that’s been cut to the desired length.  She slices it fine, takes the inside and rolls it.  Then she beats it with a mallet.  After that, it’s soaked in water for six days to make light papyrus or twelve for dark.  And after that, the strips are laid out in a crisscrossed pattern and pressed for twelve days, which not only extracts the water but also the natural sugars.  It’s interesting to find out how things are made, especially something that can last down through the millennia.
       There are some beautiful works here, but I only have my carry-on bag on this trip - and a growing number of books - so I choose to buy a small papyrus with two cartouches into which, while I wait, an artist draws - phonetically - the names of my two children.  It will go with the T-shirts that have been decorated with a cartouche of the name of each of my grandsons.

The last event of the day is a visit by boat to a Nubian village.  It doesn’t sound like much at the time but ends up being the non-monument highlight of the trip.  We board a boat that takes us upriver along the left bank of the Nile.  (On the way back we go around the islands on the right bank side; no rocks to avoid  - so faster, and easier in the dark.)
       There are two million “Nubians” in this part of Egypt.  Many of them have had to be relocated because of the Aswan High Dam, as I said earlier.  They now live on an “almost-island” that seems to be moored at the south end to the dam itself, and that provides them with highway access.

Stage of Nubian school

     The village has a primary school with about twenty students to a class, and after scrambling up the riverbanks that’s where we’re headed.  The school is decorated with artwork, especially the stage side of the inner courtyard.  We’re ushered into a classroom and there Mr. Omar, the teacher, sets to teaching us the numbers from 1 to 10... none of which I now remember.  He then has us repeat the alphabet, as he taps the blackboard with his pointer and calls them out.  It’s all good fun until he points at us and asks us what this or that letter is.  Henry gets called up and doesn’t answer right, so is made to stand against the blackboard, much to our enjoyment.  Then he points at me and asks my name.  I tell him and he writes it on the board... then calls me up to write it myself.  I probably make a pig’s ear of it, but it doesn’t look too bad to me.  And I’m not made to stand in the corner, so...

     After that, we walk a street or two to a Nubian house that also serves as a café.  The floor is earth, and Ahmed explains that they sweep it every night to erase all footprints, so you can more easily spot scorpion tracks.  Not very reassuring.  And there's another kind of beast in the house:  crocodiles, small ones that the owner keeps until they’re big enough to be released into the wild.  He encourages us to come and hold them.  After that, with our hands still intact, we’re offered a choice between hibiscus or mint tea; I choose mint.


       Meanwhile the lady of the house is busy applying henna “tattoos” to anyone who wants one, on the back of their hand.  Dawn and Suzanna volunteer - and the next day Dawn will have a reverse replica on her cheek, having slept on her tattoo.  And no, it didn’t wash off.

     We return to our boats through the market, which is still open even though night has fallen.  (After all, night falls shortly past 6 pm.)  The vendors aren’t pushy here, but the spice merchants do a brisk business just the same.

Back at the boat, it’s a light meal and then bedtime.  Tomorrow will come all too early, with a wake-up call at 4 a.m. for our departure to Abu Simbel, the other highlight I’ve been looking forward to.  For years!