Egypt is one of the first places in the world kids learn about. The place with the pyramids. The place with the Nile. The birthplace of civilization. The place where I was allowed to wonder and wander. Going there almost felt like a welcoming-- back to that place in childhood where you said and did things because you wanted to. No pretense, no shame.
But Egypt is a different place now than then, though everything is that way isn't it. The markets and sites were eerily void of the bustle of tourism, likely a result of the blaring red travel advisories shouting at me whenever I asked Google about things to do. "Why are you scaring her? Stop scaring her." a vendor pleaded with my Jordanian Arabic-speaking friend. No doubt the halt in tourism is straining the livelihood of those who've come to depend on it. But I wasn't scared. I loved Egypt. There's something about this region that unearths that wonder and wander I've held onto since childhood.
My favorite moment unfortunately couldn't be captured on camera. A woman dressed in a burka sat in the corner of a cafe/restaurant alone, with her vail lifted, a cup of coffee on her table, smoking hookah and chatting on her cell phone. People around the world are so different and so much the same. There's not a place on earth you can't find a woman creating her own space to do her.
Photographer: Jay Bee Photography | Jodi-Ann Burey
Trip Duration: 4 days
Instagram: @forcoloredgirlswhotravel
