Marsha Bailey, Fine Artist

Chair Adventure
After work Mohammed the Driver took me to meet a man about a chair. I had seen attractive and low-cost chairs used by the door/security man at the Casablanca Hotel (where our temporary, 'til the office on-site is constructed, office is located on the ground floor.) It is outdoor furniture made locally from what looked to me like sticks and turned out to be palm fronds. I asked Mohammed to find a source for me so that I could buy some for my New Damietta veranda. he checked around and looked at a few producers - cottage industry carpenters who manufacture stuff from palm fronds and who work out of their apartments and sell to the local market i.e. local Dumyat families. The man Mohammed selected lives in Kafr El Bateekh along the main road (not the Port Road) abut 10 minutes from the office - if you read the PO Adventure, you will understand if I say we passed this man's place on our way to the Post Office in the village. Well, we made our way through the busy Thursday (TGIT) evening trafficand got out of the Jeep and Mohammed rang the bell at the foot of a flight of stairs. A bundle of tall, leafless palm fronds stood against the building. They were dry.

A little man came down the bare wood stairs carrying a bare wooden chair that was obviously more sturdy than what I was expecting and with some nice aesthetic details. I did the sit-down test and liked the slightly low seat level and doomiy width between the arms. The back was canted back. The seat was hard, being wooden, so I may need to find a cottage pillow maker. I also want some side tables, so the little man ran back upstairs and came back down with a right-size, matching table. He put it down and then, a bit of a showman/salesman, he sat down hard on it to show how sturdy it was. I refused the sit-down test on the table, disappointing both the furniture-maker and Mohammed. Mohammed had previously negotiated the price, so all that was left was for to order four chairs and two tables and give Carpenter  Yaseen a 50LE down-payment. The chairs are 35LE each which is $6.50. Yaseen and I were both very happy. Yaseen works to order, so he will start on my chairs now. I was very surprised when Mohammed asked me if Monday would be O.K. for picki-up. I wnder if Yaseen has assistants.