Singing kids of the Nile

During my recent trip to Egypt, this picture that I took of this 2 egyptian kids while cruising down the Nile is one of my favourites. On our way down the Nile onboard the Felucca, we suddenly heard singing voices of young children. Wondering where it came from, we spotted two Nubian boys (the subject in my picture) holding on to the side of the boat. The boat continued as the boys were carried alongside floating in their little canoe, bellowing out a song in their native language.

The boys do this as a living, in hopes of saving enough money to buy the boat we were riding in.

The boys were lovely and absolutely adorable. Tt broke my heart to see that they have to forgo their education to make a living like this. Just like any other developing country, there is a trade-off between household consumption now and children's expected future income. Even when education is free, families are not enrolling their kids in schools and would still prefer their children to be working.

We tried heeding our guide's advice by giving them candies instead of money so as to discourage them, but we relented in the end..