I arrived into town in late November. During the previous month I had been volunteering at a beachfront camp in Nuweiba, a port town just an hour north of Dahab. As my time there came to a close I decided to check out Dahab next.

As soon as I got into town I was struck by its chaotic and frenetic energy. Watching the kids run after swerving 4x4’s to hitch a ride down the block, the herds of goats roaming the streets, and the overall unfamiliarity of the sights and sounds. I had been away from a city for so long that this little diving town shocked me back into reality.

I eventually moved into the northern neighborhood of El Assala, where many foreigners reside alongside native bedouins and Egyptian transplants. From dusk till dawn I heard the sounds of janky bicycles drifting up and down the street, people shouting at each other in a language I didn’t understand. I began wandering the neighborhood everyday in the evening, befriending the locals and familiarizing myself with the kids; kicking round the football with them and teaching them how to play Red Hands. What stood out for me most was how the people interacted with the physical space. In the west we have rules about which side of the road you should drive on and at what speed, and how private property should be treated. I began to see how differently humans here interacted with technology, architecture and animals.

Unfortunately there is a huge income difference here in Dahab. Even just inside the Bedouin community there is a surprisingly large income gap. Many of the Egyptians who have moved here to open restaurants and other businesses catering to tourists also have had a hard time with the unstable tourism industry here. But since the pandemic and the easing of restrictions, domestic tourism to Dahab has increased, which has kept the city going.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have agreed to link their two countries through the construction of a causeway, connecting Tabuk to Sharm El Sheikh, another popular resort town in Sinai. The bridge is meant to increase tourism to the Sinai region as well as Saudi Arabia. As more hip and trendy cafes begin to pop up and foreigners invest in property, one day Dahab won’t be recognizable to those who grew up here. The biggest fear people who live in and frequent Dahab is that as Egyptians and Saudis invest more money in the area the city will lose its soul and spirit. They fear that the small hippie town will be turned into a metropolitan tourism hub just like its sister city Sharm El Sheikh.

Caught between its origins as a small village tucked away on the shores of the Red Sea and its future as another concrete tourist city, GROWING UP ASSALA is a snapshot of a beloved seaside town.