Egypt – a day in the life

Waking up

Iman, 11 years old, is from a community in northern Egypt, she is one of the many children that Plan works with to help improve their lives. Here Iman talks about a typical day in her life:

Iman

Helping my mother

My name is Iman. I am 11 years old and live in the village of El-Abadia, which is in the poorest governorate of the Nile delta and lies in northern Egypt. I’m the only girl in my family and have just finished my 5th year primary exams, I will soon start the 6th year, which is the final year in primary schools in Egypt.

My family

I live with my family; my brothers - Aly, Mohamed and Islam, my father and mother. My mother is a housewife and I learn a lot from her. My father is a clerk and as his income is low, he hires two acres of land to farm, where he plants rice, clover and corn, depending on the season. At school, Aly is in the 3rd year prep and Mohamed is in the 5th primary, while Islam is still too young to attend. 

Our animals

Feeding the sheep

Like most of the people in our village, we raise some ducks. We also have three sheep, I like feeding and playing with them. We always cook one during the Greater Bairam festival and sell the others. Sometimes we keep them.   

My house

My house consists of two bedrooms, a hall, kitchen and bathroom. My parents have one room and my brothers and I have the other. The hall is furnished with sofas and we often have guests, we use this room to watch TV and to chat at night before we go to sleep.

When I am up

After I wash and do my morning prayer, my mother and I prepare breakfast everyday. We have beans and spicy cheese almost every morning, at other times we eat homemade jam and cream. For lunch we eat the same things as we have for breakfast. Dinner is our main meal - we eat cooked vegetables, rice, bread and pickle.

 

Having breakfast

During the summer holiday, I assist my mother with babysitting my brother Islam and help her with cleaning, such as making the beds and washing the dishes. When it is school time, my mum takes care of him so I have time to study. I leave for school after breakfast with my brothers, while my father goes to work.

My school

There are 45 pupils in my class and there is one bench for every three students, which are always old and broken. My favourite class is computers, I really enjoy using them, but there are not nearly enough for everyone.

I am doing well at school. I always get high marks in mathematics, Arabic and religion. All my teachers like me, especially Amina, who teaches us Arabic, I always do my best to learn and to get high grades. I would like to be a doctor to help people or a teacher so I can teach children useful things.

Helping my father

Helping my father

My brothers Aly, Mohamed and I help my father in the field he hires. We go to the field in the afternoon and help cut the grass, which we collect for the sheep to eat. During the summer we make a fire and grill some of the corn my father’s grown, it is always really delicious. 

My friends