A time of hard work, good food and working together

Harvest time in the Nile Delta
When you feel the first hint of an approaching summer, what plans do you make? What pops into your mind? What do you start writing on your To-Do list?
• I must start going to the gym?
• I need to buy a new swim-suit?
• Can I afford to make a booking for time away in a nice hotel with a pool/beach?
Here in the beautiful Nile Delta area, the farmers have another all-consuming focus: it is harvest time!

The fellaheen

The fellaheen (farmers) as they are called here, are some of the most wonderful people in Egypt. They work hard, all year round, have faces aged by the sun, feet and hands calloused and hardened through years of hard toil, they wake up before the dawn, and at sunset can be seen wearily making their way back home to a simple but healthy meal.
Their farms are generally small pockets of land, a fedhan (roughly an acre), belonging to their family for many long years, and to be passed on to their children. Land is viewed as precious and life-giving, and the thought of selling your family’s land is an unthinkable one.

The city dwellers

The people from the towns and cities tend to be very harsh in their opinions and judgement of the fellaheen. Many even say the word fellaheen in a scornful or mocking manner. This is because many city people view the fellaheen as uneducated (as some are) and not very intelligent (which they are not), and almost backward in their thinking and lives. However, if you take the time to travel to the Nile Delta, you will be invited for tea, food, a seat in the shade of the tree on a hot day, and you will discover the hospitable heart of these people who live so close to the land.

Who harvests?

But at harvest time, families in the Delta come together and work. A man with a tractor and harvester will be hired to work for a week, or a few days, on a plot of land. At the same time all the able bodied men of the family to whom the land belongs, will come out and gather and sort the wheat into sacks and bags. If there are not enough men in the family, men from the villages will be hired to come and help harvest the fields. It is back-breaking manual labour under the harsh Egyptian summer sun. But there is a feeling of thankfulness, joy and celebration at this time. Athough the financial benefits are not very much these days, and the farmers have to live very simple and hard lives, a harvest is always a time to be thankful.

Being thankful

The fellaheen are always grateful to God at this harvest time. Their lands have produced food for their families for the coming year, and as they harvest, they begin to prepare the fields for the next plantings (rice and cotton). This planting is the promise of food and income for the next season. Each farmer must also tithe a portion of his harvest to the poor. If he used mechanical means to irrigate his farm, he must tithe more than the farmer who only used rain or buckets to irrigate his farm.

And what about the women?

The women stay at home and make food, good food (as one farmer told us)! The ladies cook up wholesome nutritional meals for the men: breakfast around 9am and then lunch at around 1.30pm. The food must sustain them and enable them to continue the hard work of harvesting. Many of the hired workers look forward to this time as they are always well fed, and the shared meals with fellow-workers builds a sense of team-work and community.

Then off the mill

Once all the wheat has been bagged, they are stacked on a truck and then head to the mills. This is where the wheat will be milled, weighed and if there is more than the family needs, it is sold. And thus the work is done, food is stored and perhaps enough money received for food and a little savings.

So, when you are worrying about your new clothes for the summer, buying bug-spray and factor 50 sun lotion, remember the fellaheen. They will be working their fields together, and sharing well-earned meals under the shade of a tree on their farms.