Post No. 9a — Looking back forty-years to 26 January 1981 (Part 1)
A walk to the Main Post Office took me through traffic and among some random market stalls. The first two photos are among my favourite shots I took in Egypt, but for very different reasons.
Open markets in dusty places where there are also flies can’t be expected to be very hygienic, but the man cleaning apples in the above photo hit new depths with his cleaning technique.
And from human transportation to goods:
The thing full of bananas is what we British individuals — at least the older ones — would consider to be a seriously overgrown butcher’s bike. But while it had a seat and pedals at the back and could be steered by pushing and twisting the entire ‘basket.’ I would like to see the leg muscles of anyone capable of pedaling that load very far…. And presumably, the rider might also need a periscope to see where he was going!
And in the middle of all the chaotic traffic was this young man, standing in the road and trying to keep his father’s sheep all together by means of the fodder.
The poor little chap’s expression said it all.
Clockwise, from top left: A tourist policeman; newspaper sales; a boy eating his dad’s profits; and mobile bread sales.
This day’s photographs have been split into two separate posts because the subject matter is so different.
For views over the city, from the Cairo Tower, see post 9B.
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