Egyptian people are poor. I'm not sure if the country as a whole qualifies as 3rd world, but there were certainly some parts of it that did not seem far off by my accounts.

When we visited the Nubian village near Aswan, Derrick and I both experienced the urgent need of a bathroom. One of the villagers led us through a labyrinthan route of doors and courtyards to a shack on the crest of a hill. I can only assume this was a communal toilet, as it wasn't attached to any particular home. Inside, the squat toilet appeared to be hooked up to some form of plumbing, though there was no running water. When I picked up the large water jug from the corner to flush, a few bugs scuttled out from under it...

While I was walking around Old Cairo on Sunday morning, visiting the Coptic churches, I happened to turn down an alley that I don't think is marked in many of the guidebooks. The people sat in their doorways, most not bothering to look up at this lone passerby. Others, who did, did so with a complascent, disinterested, almost weary glance. One of the bends in the road was being used as a trash disposal area, and the local cats, dogs, and donkeys stepped through the decomposing waste in search of a nutritious morsel or two...

Later that same day, I set off in search of the mosque of Qaitbey, in Cairo's Northern Cemetary. Though once a functioning cemetary, this area has since been re-inhabited by some of the city's poorest. Tiny stone shacks give this slum, the 'City of the Dead' as it is apparently sometimes called now, a surreal air. I didn't linger too long, and never found that mosque...

Shopkeepers in Egypt are always alert, and assertive sometimes to the point of pestering. It is difficult to browse or frankly even glance at any merchandise without being accosted and practically dragged into the store. Some of us in the tour group have remarked that we would probably actually be more likely to buy something if we were free to look around the way we're used to from back home. However, on the whole, assertiveness must be the more successful technique. In a country where so many are living on the edge, financially, I don't think natural selection would allow unsuccessful sales techniques to remain so pervasive...