Dusk on the Nile

“Dime que pasa,

Que diablos hiciste con mi vida.”

– Desperté Sin Ti, Noriel

Assouan

Some breathtaking moments — like the sun setting by the Nile behind the sand dunes of the Gharb Sahel (Western Desert), depicted above — are temporary. But the memory of these moments can last in our heart for decades.

This is one of those moments I will never forget. When I was a child growing up in Accra, I remember writing a short photo essay for my Social Science class called “My Journey Along the Nile River”. In this piece, I described my imaginary experience of sailing down the Nile on a felucca, crossing rapid-flowing cataracts, evading vicious crocodiles in my path, and engaging with farmers and fishermen I meet along the river. As an adult visiting Aswan and Upper Egypt for the first time last October, I could finally see that my childhood imaginings of the Nile were surprisingly not far from reality.

I must confess that I have fallen in love with Egypt very deeply — and this is a sentimental love that has developed out of my many childhood visits to this extraordinary country while growing up. I am also guilty of over-exoticizing Egypt a little, but this is perhaps why I want to return here again in the future, with the purposes of staying for two or three years so I can truly experience the raw reality of daily life — of dealing with difficult bureaucracies, of battling with the scorching heat, of finding contentment amidst these challenges.

I will return, إن شاء الله.