A Day in the Village with the Veterinarians

On our first visit to the horse farm in Abu Sir this year we met an Australian lady named Jill Barton who is running an equine aid charity in the vicinity.  She mentioned a weekly veterinary clinic that is operated nearby by Canadian, Maryanne, in conjunction with the Brooke Hospital for Animals, a British project.  Follow those links and you will learn a good deal about the life of an Egyptian working animal.


Jill had invited us to come out and join her on any Tuesday when veterinarians provide treatment for animals at local villages free of charge.  This past Tuesday we headed out to join them.

It turned out to be a good day to visit since a large group of Italian farriers happened to be in the area teaching their skills to Egyptian students of the trade.  We caught up to the farriers at Maryanne's nearby farm where they were forging some new shoes.




Maryanne's farm provides horseback riding for larger groups and she also has a small goat cheese operation along with organic vegetables irrigated by a solar pumping station.




With a half dozen or so farriers and three veterinarians, we soon set off in a convoy to a nearby village.  Maryanne has several of these small villages lined up on a rotating basis for the vets' Tuesday visits. We arrived and they set up shop beside the local mosque.


The mosque is the center of activity in the area.  Women were coming to the pump to draw water.


And bread was being prepared and baked in the oven just beyond the pump.


The vets' medical supplies took a slightly different route and arrived by donkey cart.


Maryanne keeps meticulous records on the animals and their treatment.  She has a very outgoing personality and appears to know a great many of the villagers.



A young man had used the mosque loudspeaker system to announce that the clinic was in session and people began to arrive from all directions.  Villagers, young and old, brought a wide variety of animals with donkeys and horses being in the majority.



The poultry owners were given a vitamin supplement that one of the vets later told me stimulated egg production as well as helping to develop thicker shells.  A number of infections were treated, too.


But much of the work this day was performed by the farriers.  Each of them had a well-equipped bucket of tools.




When the last of the animal had been treated, we returned to Maryanne's farm where she hosted a luncheon for the large contingent of volunteers and observers.

The Elections for Parliament Are Coming Soon

Parliamentry elections will be taking place here in March and April.  This article in the Cairo Post says:

So far 45,639 potential candidates have submitted applications to run for Egypt’s upcoming parliamentary elections, Head of High Elections Committee Judge Ayman Abbas told Youm7 Tuesday.

Campaign signs have been up in some locations for a while.  There is a large poster on the front of our building for this candidate.  I took these pictures just after the recent sandstorm.


Ashraf Farouk el Gabry is the name.  He happens to own the building.


The el Gabry family has a long history in the area near the pyramids.  The story told on this Tour Egypt webpage will give you some background.

The prince remembered his promise. Then and there he called for paper. When it was brought he asked, "What is your name?"

"I am of the Gabry family," was the proud reply.

The prince said, "I have signed the paper and it makes over all the land near the pyramids that you can ride around in a perfect circle. In the future it will belong to the Gabry family!"

So the Gabry family and their Bedouin relations divided the land and built their homes. Even today the main name in the village is Gabry, a close second is Kataab. They are cousins.

I try to learn a little more about the election process whenever I visit someone with an interest in government and politics - that is about 100% of the male population.  But you can imagine a foreigner trying to understand the Minnesota political process - "It begins with party caucuses that almost no one attends and then ..."

As I currently understand it, the March elections will narrow the field down to five candidates in each district for the runoffs.  But there are requirements that a specified number of Christians and women must emerge from the process.  Eventually, 567 members of parliament will be elected and they have the power to change the president if they wish.

Wadi El-Hitan

After crossing the 23 mile stretch of desert, we arrived at the entrance to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wadi El-Hitan.  The name means Valley of the Whales and the site features a unique display of whale fossils.

The visitor center and other buildings are designed to fit  unobtrusively into the golden sand of the Sahara.


We were accompanied by three Egyptians.  Our driver, Ahmed, had navigated the route in the Land Cruiser.  Roshdy, our friend and professional tour guide (on the right) introduced us to the valley in previous trips and is frequently our go-to guy for outings in Egypt.  Roshdy partners with desert guide and cook, Taha, for many trips and Taha made the arrangements with the drivers.



There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot on this day and they were preparing to leave.  With the exception of a policeman on duty and one building attendant who lives on site, we had the entire world heritage site to ourselves for the afternoon.


Naturally, the visitor center serves tea, and we celebrated our arrival with a small cup.


The attraction of the Valley of the Whales is the combination of a well-preserved collection of fossils and unique stone formations in the desert.  The trails are well marked, there is good signage and it is exceptionally well maintained.


A trail through the sand meanders for about a mile over hill and dale with 13 marked stops for fossils, interpretive explanations and scenery.  After we finished tea, Linda, Roshdy and I headed out to see the sights.


The fossil stops are interesting.


But, unless you are a paleontology student, you are likely to be most impressed just by the views from the hilltops.




Linda and Roshdy dropped out before the final hill-climb so I found myself walking totally alone through the desert in silence for about a half-hour.  It was quite a contrast to the chaotic hubbub of Cairo.

When we arrived back at the visitor center, Taha had used the kitchen and grill to prepare his usual desert feast of roast chicken, rice, tomato-potatoes and salad.  We wound up our visit a bit before 5 p.m.


On the way back, our driver took a shortcut across the desert to cut off the jog in the path that the road follows.  I don't think it saved us any distance and certainly no time.  But we made it back to the paved highway just as the sun was setting so didn't have to spend the night in the desert.


After switching back into the van, our driver asked if we would like to have tea at his house in Fayoum.  Of course, we would not be so rude as to say, "No, thank you."  We drove through the dark alleys of Fayoum and walked into the home of our driver.  We had tea and fruit in a reception room bathed in the pink glow of a single warm-fluorescent curlicue bulb. Fayoum, by the way, is an interesting city.  We have visited it several times before (put Fayoum in the search box at the very top left of this page, then click on the magnifying glass)  Its politics set it apart from much of the area that we usually visit.

To see more pictures of the Wadi El-Hitan area, just click on any of the photos above and you will be whisked off into the Flickr album for this trip where there are more fossils and desert formations to be seen.

Meanwhile, Back at the Lake

A week or so past, our neighbors on the St. Croix Flowage had sent us a picture of a bobcat strolling past the cabins, then pausing to look at the lake.  It wasn't until the fourteenth that they sent a picture to show us what the cat was looking at.

(Photo credits to Tom and Barb Deheer)

Wadi El-Hitan. Getting There Is Half the Fun

After last year's unexpected attempt to reach the World Heritage Site at Wadi El-Hitan, I was determined to make a successful journey there this year.  Linda agreed to go along with what was clearly "my idea," as she put it more than once.

We started out this morning at 8:00 sharp.  That turned out to be around 8:35 Egyptian time, which isn't too bad.  We started out from our front door in a Toyota van.  It is about a hundred miles as the crow flies to Wadi El-Hitan except no crow follows this route.  We headed north to catch the southbound highway toward Fayoum.  Here's a map that shows our route.


It's the last 23 miles across the desert that makes it a four hour drive although the multitude of speed-bumps along the lake-shore drive near Fayoum don't help either.

Our first stop was for fuel, of course.  Vehicles here are seldom filled before beginning a trip. After all, why fill up before you pick up the clients?  Note that the van is well equipped with Kleenex on a piece of shag rug which is another local custom.


Our next stop was a rest stop.  We pulled in at this convenience store which has chips, water, soda and tea.  Linda is being shown to the restroom around back, a tiny square shack with a door off the hinges and a porcelain hole. The courteous driver adjusted the door over the opening after she was inside and then he discreetly disappeared.


We opted for freshly brewed tea.  A wide variety of  teas and Nescafe is available and you know the glasses are always clean, because they are wet.


I know there are people interested in construction who read this blog, so here is a shot of the ceiling support beam and electrical work.


Back on the road, we passed this one or two miles long row of tombs.  Linda says I have taken this picture  before but I can't help using it again.


Shortly after we turned south from Lake Qarun at the Fayoum Oasis, it was time to change vehicles.  We switched from the van into a 4-wheel drive Toyota Land Cruiser, the vehicle of choice for the desert.


If something looks not-quite-right about that Land Cruiser, it is because it is stuck in the sand.  No driver of a 4-wheel drive vehicle here can resist taking a shortcut off-road.  We have been to the desert three times in recent years and have had to help extricate the vehicle each time.


Since I was busy taking pictures, I couldn't push at this point.  I imagine that the passengers on the bus were wondering why we didn't just stay on the paved road.  I was wondering that myself.

But, I have to admit, the Land Cruiser got us to some spectacular views of this area that we were not able to see last year in the low-slung sedan.





They were well-worth the initial inconvenience.

We finally arrived at the entrance to Wadi El-Hitan at about 1:15.  Well under five hours.

(To be continued.)