Camels/Nubian village cont.....

One of the wall paintings in the Nubian village house

The village itself ... I suppose we would call it 'quaint' but putting quaint aside it is very practical and workable. Very thick mud brick walls are what the houses are constructed of. Straw/camel hair is added to the bricks for strength and insulation. the homes have a central domed roof, to let in natural light and to allow heat to rise and be released. the area the village is situated is very hot. it is 'winter' here right now, and from 11am onwards it is very hot, so hate to think what summer is like. The nice thing about the heat it is a clear heat, very little humidity and if you get out of the sun it is coolish... I love it

Anyway back to the houses. The houses are painted in cool colours, inside. Pale watery blues, kind of a sponge wash look. They also paint the walls with memorable scenes of things that are important to them. Weddings, and other special celebrations and the proudest of all is the Merkaba, which homes proudly paint on the wall when a family member/s perform the Haj to Mecca. One home had a scene of a young boy riding a camel, with the dunes and village in the background. I am not sure of the significance, but possibly the boy's first camel? they learn to ride at a very young age, and are so casual and at ease on the camels. We tourists must provide them with lots of laughs.

The floors of the homes are simply brushed smooth sand. Colourful hand woven rugs adorn the bench seats around each room and other woven decorations are hung on the walls and from the ceilings.

The house we went into had 1 to 2 yr old crocs for show, and I actually patted one. A couple of the girls held one. They had a pet tortoise, that was very cute, also a couple of stuffed animals, a large fox and weasel thing. I hate to see animals stuffed and on display. The energy isn't good, I don't think.

After leaving the village we returned by boat to the hotel. The boatmen sang and played the riq
(a large tambourine drum thing). we sang along and they got us up to dance, that was fun, dancing on a small boat chugging along the Nile.We also did that a couple of nights ago, after having been out to a restaurant for dinner.

Earlier that day when we had been chugging along the Nile to go to the village, I heard this small boy calling and was quite taken aback ... where had the voice come from, I turned around and was surprised to see a small boy holding onto tire slung over the side of the boat ( they use them as cushioning when they dock as they bang into each other to get to moorings). he was singing to us for money. first he asked 'where from? - spanish, Italy, English. He wanted to know the language we spoke. Once he sussed out we spoke English he sang songs in English. It was so amusing, the kids are fearless and enterprising. we each paid him LE5 (5 Egyptian pounds), so he paddled ( using his hands as paddles as he sat on his blue painted plank) back to shore quite happy.

We 'westerners' would be horrified if our kids did a 1/4 of the things kids do here. We just molly-coddle our kids too much I think. Different worlds that is for sure. Mind you Aussie kids have much less molly-coddling than some countries.

One thing I noticed here, is the sand. it is so fine and soft like silk, and a deep goldy colour. being so soft and fine it is really quite strange to walk in, it shifts differently underfoot. It is also in a weird way sticky, it doesn't brush off easily, just clings to your skin, hair and clothes. I think because it is so fine, the silica has a better chance of clinging to the skin that the sand in our part of the world.

We have a beach here in Victoria, called Squeaky Beach. The sand is really white and squeaks as you walk on it, that is the silica content, and it can be kind of sticky as well, it is not ultra silky fine like in Egypt either. The Sand in Egypt didn't squeak, it tends to flow underfoot a bit like water.

Last night we went to a Nubian restaurant for dinner. The food here has been totally yummy, and we have all eaten everything in sight! The salads are so nice I am in my food element;-)

OK that is it for now.... We catch the train to cairo this evening. it is a sleeper. Arriving in Cairo around 7pm then a 2.5 - 3 hour bus trip to Alexandria. next entry will probably be from Alex.