Hello, my name is Karima, I am 6 years old and the youngest member of the Musa Family. I would like to tell something about myself and help you understand some of the Culture in my Country. I am a typical young Muslim Egyptian girl in my village of Gezirat el Bairaat. As in all Egyptian families the very young and the very old are much loved by all. Not all young girls like myself are lucky enough to attend school, some of my friends don't attend as there isn't any free education here. All education and medical needs must be paid for by the family. My father  is going to teach me how to say hello in different languages, I think I will find it quite hard, but I hope I am able to greet you in your own language when you visit our home. If you would like to know a bit more about our lives and culture then just click on one of the other pictures and meet some of my friends.

I am representing the "Head of the Family". You will see men like myself sitting around the local juice bars and coffee shops talking and smoking our shisha pipes. Do not be afraid to stop and talk to us as we love to speak to visitors of our Country and talk about our families and many different subjects. Maybe our English is not so good at times, but we love to try. It is our responsibility to provide for our family as best as we can. You will see lots of men doing the local shopping then meeting our friends and neighbours in the street to drink tea and coffee, this is our way of socialising and keeping up with the news. Sometimes you will hear raised voices, we are very passionate people and heated discussions take place, do not let this disturb you, it always sounds worse than it looks and we always part company with a slap on the back and smile on our face.

We will probably drive you mad a times but mean no harm, you see I am representing "Hassle". Wherever you go (mainly in the towns) we will be there offering you taxis, kalesh rides, feluccas, motorboats, camels, donkeys and any other mode of transport you can think of. This is our way of earning money and will approach anyone who looks like they are a tourist, we mean no harm and may even follow you for a few meters trying to persuade you. Sometimes we get lucky and enjoy your company for an hour or two if you decide to hire us. Before you decide on how you would like to spend your time, please make sure you know how much you are paying and for how long, whether it is per person or for your family or friends.Like all traders, we love to barter, it is a way of life here, don't be afraid to do this, it can be fun when you get used to it.

I am 18 years old and I am representing the "Young Woman". I would like to help you understand our role in life. Although many of us have an opportunity to follow a career, most of us choose to follow family traditions. Our goal is to provide a good home for our future husbands and off spring. Many people outside of our culture believe that our marriages are arranged from an early age, this may have been the case many years ago, but it is not the case now. We have the right to refuse any suitor with the full backing of the family The familys main concern is that, not only do we like them, but they are able to provide well for us and his future children, someone who will treat us well and look after us and make us happy. Like you we love bright colours and nice things, we wear the traditional Galabeya which covers our arms and legs and head scarf to cover our hair.

I could go on forever explaining our different ways but feel you would like to move on through our web-site. Just a small fact for you, Egypt is the largest consumer of bread in the world, each village has it's own trade mark way of baking the local sun-bread, it comes in different shapes and sizes, we can normally tell which village it has come from and sometimes who has baked it.

Well, it has been a pleasure meeting you and we hope to see you in our Country soon. Inshallah!

Let me introduce you to the "Female Head of the Family" role. It is our main role in life to provide a clean and comfortable home for our men-folk and off spring, it is very important for us to maintain the care and welfare provided by the men. I believe in someways that our role is not all that different from our men-folk with the main difference being, that he is the bread-winner and we make it stretch.  It is our job to prepare our young daughters on how to run a family home and to keep it running smoothly and happily. They start from a very early age and continue until they are married and have a home and family of their own to take care of. As the girls get older we can then take a back step and continue their home education while they take on more responsiblilites, it is very important they learn all the aspects of their duties and carry them out well.

Our other friends are the horses, you might see one or two being used to pull heavy carts but they are mainly used by the Kalesh drivers (these are the horse and carriages you will see around the towns).

There are many stables around where you can hire a horse to take you for a ride around the countryside and cater for the novice and the experienced rider, they are mainly Arabian and are very gentle and beautiful to look at.

I am known to many of you as the "Beast of Burden" you will see hundreds of us donkeys wherever you go, you see, we are the main work-force and help our owners everyday with their heavy loads. We also enjoy taking people on our backs to visit villages and areas of interest. Our friends the camel can be seen taking groups of people out in long camel-trains, we sometimes join them on their outings for those of you who prefer us to them. The camels seen around the villages must not be mistaken for their cousins of the desert, they are completely different and even walk in a different manner, they are born and bred to the desert and know every inch of the way, they even have different saddles and bridles, maybe if you are taking a trip out there you can experience this for yourself.

Hello, I am a friend of Karima's to the right and I am representing "Youth". You will see a lot of people my age who do not go to school. We work to help our families out with everyday things. We earn money by helping people do small jobs and sometimes work on the land to grow vegetables for our families. We help with walking donkeys and camels and meet lots of interesting people and like all Egyptians love to play football. Sometimes life can be quite difficult but mostly a happy one, you will always see us smiling.