I saw the silver embroidery for the first time on my last visit to Egypt, and have been intrigued ever since.

Our second day in Sohag would take us to the Shandawil group who have revived the lost art of tali embroidery. Traditional tali is done on a loosely woven black fabric with flat silver threads. The embroiderer uses a needle to make flat stitches, each one separate so that the finished embroidery looks almost like beading. The designs come from nature—trees, flowers, grasses. In earlier days it was essential for women of society to wear shawls and dresses covered in silver tali.

The group of young women we met were a delight. They showed us how they made the stitches with metallic thread, and how they placed the rows of designs to make a beautiful whole. The pieces they made were displayed for us to see, and they have adapted the art by mixing silver, gold and colored cotton threads and by making blouses, dresses and scarves. They also do chain stitch embroidery on cotton for brightly colored dresses and bed covers. They told us they love the work and are glad they have saved a piece of Egyptian heritage. They also said they enjoyed being members of the group and laughed as they pointed out that there were “no men allowed.” And they explained that if they did not have this work they would all be at home, poorer both in money and in spirit. We were invited to stay for refreshments, but unfortunately we had to rush to the train station so we could get back to Luxor for our flight to Cairo.

At the train station we were told that there were no seats available.And that there would be no seats available on the next train two hours later. Were we daunted? No! Amr told us we would just get on the train and pay the penalty for not having a ticket when the conductor came around. We might have to stand for the three to four hour trip, but we would get to Luxor on time. So we hopped on with all our luggage and stood in the passageway, trying to get out of the path as people moved through from car to car. Suddenly the attendant appeared and one by one found seats for us in the first class car! Back in Luxor we met Carrie’s mom, Beth, who is joining us for the last part of the journey. We enjoyed the Carnack Light and Sound show and visited for a while before Denise, Amr and I left for the airport. We’ll all meet up again in a couple of days and are keeping our fingers crossed that we can get security clearance to visit the producers in north Sinai on Monday.