When I was a small boy...

Walking along the banks of Manyal, an island in the middle of the Nile between Giza and Cairo, we noticed a guy with a really nice lawn. The road is about 15-20 feet above the actual water level, but there is a strip of land at the same level that is commonly occupied by nurseries. I told Janice, "This would be the first place I would take my Mom. I wonder if she's even interested in the Pyramids."

There was a guy standing in the vicinity of the nice lawn and he called us down. I commented on how nice his lawn was and he proceeded to tell me (in Arabic) that he pumped water from the Nile and used it to water the lawn. Why hadn't I thought of that?

So, the man took a bamboo bench and moved it to the water's edge, then he asked if we wanted tea. I couldn't refuse in such a peaceful setting, so he set about boiling water. While we were waiting, I asked him if there were fish in the river.

"When I was a small boy, there used to be a lot of big fish in the river. But then the pollution and overfishing came and now all that's left are small fish." (Roughly translated from Arabic)