Working in Egypt (post 4)

Nearly all of our traveling was done during daylight hours, and nearly all of it was through inhabited areas. In other words, I feel like I saw half of the population of Egypt. Maybe I’ll write more on that later. But the reality that I was impressed with was the hard-working nature of the Egyptian people. Most people I saw were working. There were a few standing on the streets (or riding in the buses with us), but most were on the move, whether it was 6:30 in the morning or 5 as the sun was setting. Women were out front cooking the meal in the early morning cold (yes it was cold!). We saw some kids in school or on their way, but in other places the kids were laboring. One scene that struck me was an adult supervising about half a dozen children hoeing in a large field. Women never seem to travel without carrying something, always on their head. The loads they can balance are amazing. The men too always seem to be hard at work. They don’t make much money (maybe more on that later), but it doesn’t seem to me to be due to a lack of effort. Perhaps one reason I was struck by this was because I haven’t observed the same work ethic among the Palestinian population in Israel. I can think of several factors that could contribute to this, but I make the observation nonetheless.