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“Our lives were very hard,” said the 76-year-old Egyptian, recounting how his father, his brothers and other farmers had to use the traditional felucca sailboats to harvest the corn crops in the flooded fields.

Cairo residents might have coffee at a floating restaurant or board a felucca for an hourlong cruise; Nile water flows from their taps and grows their food.

The felucca set sail without him but with his paintings still on board.

There are images of feluccas sailing on the Nile River in Egypt, ancient ruins in Greece and an older woman and two children standing by a doorway in China.

Mia, 13, is in a huddle of kids on the upper deck of the wooden felucca, our home for the night.