The Serpent’s Valley

This conversation happened last summer, and I have thought of it often ever since.

-I’m saving to do an English course at the British Council. They are the best.

-Why do you want to do an English Course?

-Because I need to become really educated. I need a way out. Uber isn’t my full-time job. I’m actually a labourer in the quarries of the Serpent’s Valley. I’ve been working there since I was 15.

-Oh, but then you have a trade, I thought that was secure.

-It’s secure if you can stay alive, but up in the Serpent’s Valley, it’s only a matter of time before the mountain claims you. I have seen some difficult things up there. Just yesterday, my colleagues told me that truck carrying blocks of marble up the mountain careened downwards. The driver had lost control of the breaks. Several blocks of marble fell and crushed labourers who couldn’t get out of the way. They were riding a bus. The thing is, this isn’t that unusual. I also saw people get injured and die in front of me. Once a block of marble crushed a colleague of mine. The crane malfunctioned and the block fell on him. He was flattened just like a sticker إتفعص ذي الأستيكر. Sometimes you can lose control of your saw or you equipment. I heard of men losing fingers or even accidentally disembowelling themselves. I mean if you cut yourself in the stomach then… .

-There isn’t any security gear?

-No Ostaza, there isn’t at all. The most you can hope for is an apron and some rubber boots to protect you from getting wet during the carving. But even those, you have to pay for yourself. Mostly you get an old pair, left behind when someone leaves or you know … dies. Plus, we need to work quickly, especially if the client is in a hurry. If we make a mistake, more often than not, the price of the broken block or badly cut sheet of marble comes out of the pay of the whole group. That’s why the foreman is very strict.

-Can I ask how much you are paid?

-Well pay varies based on experience. You start out as a Sabi, a “boy” and you make 160 pounds per shift. The shift lasts about six hours. Then you become a worker عامل and you can go up to 200 pounds per shift or more. After that if you make it Usta or foreman you can even go up to 360 or 400 per shift. Most people do two shifts per day. It’s expensive up in the mountain you see. You need to pay for your transport up there. Also, food up there isn’t cheap. Then there is water. There is no running water on the mountain. Cistern trucks take water from the Nile and pour it into wells up there. The water is used to lubrify the saws and cutting equipment. It’s filled with gravel and debris. You need to buy mineral water. At first, when I was still a teenager, I thought that the money was good. I would take my 160 pounds per shift and buy myself whatever I wanted. I would get clothes, the latest pair of Koutchi sneakers. I could afford cigarettes and Coca Cola. I had the priorities of a child. I started working in the mountain behind my father’s back. I would hide my work clothes at a friend’s house. I would change before I came home. But now my father passed and I am responsible for my sisters, and I know my body won’t be able to take the mountain forever.