Egyptian Cotton

I mentioned before I took my trip to Egypt that I wanted to of course get some of their famed cotton while I was there. Well, everyone I talked to informed me that it is really not a good deal there, any where you go to buy it will be overpriced unless you go out into the country and make your purchase at one of the cotton factories. Because it wasn't really an option for us to visit a factory, I decided to look for fabric stores to buy the cotton in, that way the prices would be what a local would pay. I went into fabric stores when we were in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and it was fascinating to me...it's not a normal tourist stop, so the experience of buying fabric gives a bit more of an authentic feel for the culture. The same was true when I found a fabric store in a neighborhood near the Pyramids of Gyza. Just as in Brazil, fabric stores and the garment industry in general are run by men, kind of different from what we are used to here in the states where you typically don't find men in fabric stores unless they are patiently waiting for their wives. (My husband finds himself in this situation pretty frequently, actually!) The two gentlemen who we met in the fabric store pictured below were very friendly, after our purchase, they even asked us to stay for tea...a significant gesture in the Middle East. We of course accepted. Our conversation with them centered on our travels, family - they shared pictures and the husband shared a picture he keeps in his wallet of the stepson, and we even talked a bit about politics (they love Obama, he seems to always get a thumbs up from Egyptians). It was a very neat experience...I went back and forth when deciding whether or not to share the pictures below as part of this post...I don't usuallyshow pictures of myself, or at least not of my face. This blog isn't really about appearances for me, what I look like isn't my focus, I like to talk more about what I do and the things that inspire my creativity. But, in this case, the pictures complete my story and tell about a neat experience I had, one that really shaped the trip for me and made me feel like I had stepped into Egyptian culture. Those two men were fun and even goofy, I was glad that our path crossed their little shop.