the art of balance

I have become more and more aware of the art of balancing in the streets. After a decade in this city, I had become used to these little eccentricities, and didn't think twice when a boy whizzed past me on a bike balancing a tray of pita bread. One hand balances the tray, the other guides the bike, so he hisses at people to warn them he's coming.

There are other little eccentricities - the little wicker baskets that people tie to a rope and lower from their balconies to a man walking the streets selling newspapers, or to the little boy from the grocery store down the street, piling in tea and sugar and taking the money left at the bottom of the basket.

The bumper stickers on taxis and microbuses with wive and children's names, prayers of all sorts, tiny shoes hanging from the rear bumper, CDs glued to the windshield, prayer beads and crosses hanging from rearview mirrors.

The vespas with 3 or 4 people piled on, a child wedged in the middle for good measure, and a little cassette player blaring the latest in Arabic pop music.

It's a whirlwind of a city.

But for the coming month, at sunset, the streets are going to be empty, as Ramadan takes over Cairo and our days are turned upside down.

Most definitely best viewed large

In black & white