On the way to Alexandria

The countryside is beautiful! It's alive. The people, the sky, the clouds, the breeze. It makes me more alive! Everyone is at work. Donkeys pulling carts. People with their sickles working out in the fields. Women crossing the river fully clothed. Laundry. Sunshine. Rough stones and rickety bridges. Green palms along the long paved path walked by gray-haired women with baskets on their heads, old men wearing long dusty robes, and dirty, rowdy boys on their wobbly bicycles. Carts and cows and heavy loads. Lime green walls. Hasan. Waiting, working, fishing. Chewing and chewing and lazily watching. Babies in the back of pick-up trucks. Life and death. I see it all from the train. All beautiful because there's purpose and steadiness. A common, fluid rhythm.