Ganzeer Stickers Manila

On the last day of the Shatana Workshop, Mark Salvatus (Manila) and myself (Cairo) agreed to make each other some stickers to we can each stick them in our designated cities.

So I made 3 for Mark:




Mark made me a couple of eyes, which I thought waere brilliant for Cairo:


And we made one collabo together:


Mark successfully stuck mine around his Manila:




As well as our collabo:


But he decided to keep my winged unicorn man to himself cause he liked it so much. I also managed to stick Mark's eyes in downtown Cairo, but because it's Cairo, of course I had to get harassed by cops before being able to take a picture. I did manage to take a couple of really shitty picture with my friend's mobile phone, but he has yet to send me said pictures.

Soon enough.

My bad, Mark!

The Pilgrim Fox (El-Hajj Tha3lab)

While in Jordan, in the city of Irbid, I came across this little children's book at a bookstore, which was just too hilarious not to pick up.


So it's about a fox who decides to go to Hajj (pilgrimage). He breaks the news to the duck in the neighborhood, so they all -including the mama duck- decide to put on their best clothes and join him... even though going to Hajj entails dressing up like this. So anyway, they all join the Fox on his little boat which he will apparently row to Mecca, which is not located on the banks of a river or the coast of a sea; it's actually in the middle of the desert, but the fox will row there anyway.

Only the youngest duckling is forbidden to join. Why? Just because he's the youngest.

So the young duckling, crying and sobbing, because all young kids want to go to Hajj of course, complains to the miserable-looking dog in the dog house.

Now the only time I've ever seen a dog house is probably Tom and Jerry cartoons. On this side of the world, dogs live on the street. If they so happen to have an owner, said owner will defintely not build a dog house for the dog.

And what is up with the fields, trees, rivers and fences. Why is the setting of this Arabic-language story on the Hajj fox reminiscent of the south of France?

So as soon as the little duckling breaks the news to the dog, the dog knows that it's a con the Fox is pulling to lure all the ducks to his home so he can feast on them. And indeed, the Fox tells the ducks it's time for a little tea break, to relax from the long journey (?), and invites them into his home for a cup of tea.

How would these ducks trust this Fox to take them all the way to Mecca in the heart of a desert, when a little rowing across the river is enough for the Fox to take a tea break?

Anyway.

The brave dog swims across the river, barks at the fox, scares him off, and rows the stupid ducks back home.



And the final surprise: created and published in Cairo, Egypt.

Bravo. Sheer genius.

The Jordan Photo Album

During the Shatana workshop I was pretty much going camera crazy, because, well... it's fun. After the workshop was over, a few of the artists and myself took some time to see Amman, Wadi Rum, and Petra. My camera's battery actually died before entering Petra, so that's pretty much the only thing I don't have pictures of. I plan on making up for that when I bike to Jordan next month! Yeah!