This piece was written for Egypt Independent's final weekly print edition, which was banned from going to press. We offer you our 50th and final edition here.
Mohamed Abdel Barr starts his day at 4 am, when he wakes up for the dawn prayer. He tends to his farm, feeds his cattle and then heads to school, where he works as a janitor.
He returns home at about 2 pm to have lunch with his family, after which he continues work on his farm, with his son Islam, until sunset.
Abdel Barr’s modest one-story house is a five-minute drive off the main highway of his village Wardan, nestled in a green landscape, where he lives with his wife and three sons.
With the deteriorating economic situation and constant increases in prices, Abdel Barr’s family makes do with their own resources, depending on the cattle and crops growing in their farm to cover the needs his paycheck can’t.
Wardan is located 50 kilometers from Cairo, and, in its serenity, stands in stark contrast to the city. The village, tucked on the border between Cairo and Monufiya, is also far removed from the capital’s turbulent political climate, leaving its residents focused mainly on their day-to-day well-being.
This alone proves to be a struggle as the village faces a scarcity in government and health services, as well as household utilities.
Abdel Barr’s family plans the finances of each month in advance, he explains, with both he and his wife calculating how much is needed to feed the family.
With a meager salary that is barely keeping up with price hikes, Abdel Barr and his family rely on their cattle and crops for most of their supplies.
The most common crops the family grows include corn, trefoil, beans and wheat. Abdel Barr’s wife, Om Ayman, explains that sometimes the family will grow a new crop at the expense of another, depending on their needs at the time.
They also rely on their cattle for milk, from which they make their own dairy products, such as cheese and ghee.
This leaves few products that Om Ayman needs to buy at the market.
She also shows off the bread she bakes in their homemade oven, which saves them the use of gas.
If their budget runs out one month, the family resorts to selling some of their produce in the market.
In an average month, Abdel Barr spends about LE100 on subsidized food, LE200 on meat, and another LE100 on other food items, leaving LE100–200 for emergencies “in case something happens to one of my children.”
“I get paid on the 26th of every month and God helps us get by,” he says.
With both Abdel Barr and his wife suffering from diabetes, their medication is provided through health insurance on a monthly basis.
He explains that every month, a Muslim Brotherhood medical convoy offers help for the underprivileged. While Abdel Barr has been paying for the medication for the past five years, he says he relied on the convoy last month who provided him with medication prescribed to him and his wife.
The family says the increasing cost of living really started to take its toll on them after the revolution, and especially over the past two or three months.
Egypt’s economic malaise is adding the heaviest burden on the already struggling poorer segments of society. Planned economic reforms, including tax rises and subsidy cuts, are looming threats of further difficulty to making ends meet. Many experts expect these policies to hit the poorest the hardest.
In a frenzied scramble to cut a hefty subsidy bill, Egypt unceremoniously raised the price of cooking gas earlier this month, for the first time in two decades. The price of cooking gas cylinders sold for domestic use was raised by 60 percent to LE8, and doubled to LE16 for commercial use from the price of LE8.
Abdel Barr talks about butane gas cylinders, which he buys for LE9 after they were sold for LE5. He explains that to be able to afford it, he has to do without some “luxury items, such as cigarettes or certain types of fruit.”
According to official statistics, the poverty rate in Egypt has increased, reaching an average of 25.5 percent for the year 2010/11. More than half of the rural areas’ population lives below the poverty line.
According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, “extreme” poverty had decreased to 4.8 percent of the population in 2010–2011.
The poverty line in Egypt was at LE256 per person per month, or LE8.50 per day, while the “extreme” poverty line is calculated at LE171.50 per person per month, or LE5.70 per day.
For Abdel Barr’s family to survive, each member of the family contributes to daily chores.
Om Ayman wakes up with her husband and spends her day tending to the farm and house. She goes to the market at 7 am on Thursdays and Saturdays, to either buy or sell produce.
Their son Islam, who is still in school, manages to study and play football with his friends while still making time to help his parents around the farm, as well as making a little extra money by working as a cook catering to weddings in the village.
“Out of all my sons, he is the one I depend on the most,” boasts Abdel Barr.
With his other son, Ayman, enlisted in the military, Abdel Barr says some of his expenses have been alleviated since he manages to earn a salary working there as a cook.
When it comes to months such as Ramadan, when spending may increase, Om Ayman says the family stocks up on supplies two months in advance.
“We are aware of our financial situation and we spend accordingly,” she says.
Abdel Barr and his wife say their daily routine has swallowed any leisure time or activity. With barely any time to spend away from the farm, Abdel Barr and his wife’s only outings involve going to weddings.
They do maintain a family tradition, however, of having their two married daughters spend a day with them every week.
Abdel Barr says he is intent on “raising my children right so they don’t engage in any problems.” He laments the current turbulent political situation in Egypt, saying that while his village might be away from any violence, such scenes still affect him negatively.
He has no hopes in Egypt’s current politicians to improve the economic situation, saying, “The full don’t sympathize with the hungry.”
