Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Day 2: The Carpet School

Near Saqqara is a village with lush vegetation, fertile fields growing food, and a plethora of carpet schools. These schools train young children, especially children of poor families, the skill of making handmade carpets. The schools use buses to pick up the children from their homes. The children spend all day weaving and learning how to make carpets. Then they go home at night. These schools provide poor children with valuable skills so that they can get work as they grow older. The schools also sell the carpets the children make.

We visited one such school where they gave us a demonstration. They let our kids try to weave a bit. It was interesting. The children were absolutely darling. They kept staring at us and watching us, waving at us with big happy smiles. Some of the girls asked us for money, but most of the children just seemed happy that we were there and smiling at them.

Seeing these children working hard to learn a useful skill that would help them support their families was really humbling. I often think that many American children do not even realize the privilege and blessing that it is that they attend public schools for free and that with careful planning and saving, they can also go to university.






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