Hurghada is on Egypt's premier resort areas
a 20-mile long dense band of concrete
on the fabled Red Sea.
Unfortunately all those resorts are generating an awful lot of trash
much of which ends up strewn across the desert.
But one group of locals has suffered more than any other
from the recent construction boom.
They have herded goats and camels among the rocky sands of North Africa and the Middle East
since time immemorial.
Their name means desert nomads in Arabic.
they are the Bedouin.
Fiercely loyal to family and tribe
they live by a strong code of honor.
Red Sea developers took the Bedouin's best land
and now they struggle to maintain their traditions
and scratch a living out of the desert sands.
They drink heavily sweetened coffee
made from fresh roasted beans
and spiced with cardamom.
Her name is Ohm Ahmed.
She has no idea how old she is
only that she was born in the desert
and wants to be buried beneath its rocky soil.
Her three sons have taken jobs at nearby Red Sea resorts.
One has even earned enough to buy a truck.
He sends his two sons to spend weekends with their grandmother
in the hopes that she will teach them the Bedouin way of life
before it is completely lost.
Om Achmed is happy to put them both to work raising pigeons and herding goats.
Though she may be more innovative than anyone gave her credit for.
Recently she caught an unusual deal to use her goats in an entirely new role:
recycling garbage.
HEPCA delivers trash from the tourist resorts along the Red Sea
and the goats get down to business.
They eat everything
from grass clippings
to toilet paper.
Nothing seems to faze them.
Is there any corner of the world that Western garbage hasn't reached?
While the goats are making short work of anything organic
the Bedouin scoop up all the recyclables
even though it's over a hundred and five degrees.
It's a hard life
but in some ways a Ohm Ahmed is actually better off than she was before.
The income from recycling allows her to buy all-important water containers for her flock,
coolers for herself,
a refrigerator,
and clothes.
Most importantly, her grandchildren are going to school.
Though in the process she has given up the safety of her nomadic life
for an uncertain future:
every time there's unrest in faraway Cairo
Hurghada's tourist industry comes to a crashing halt.
Hotel occupancy can drop as low as 3%.
Fewer tourists mean less trash
and less income for the Bedouin
but also less damage to the reefs.
Revolution may be bad for the economy
but it's good for the fish.