How did the camel driver who befriended the boy come to be in this line of work?

From the text, we can infer that an earthquake ruined the olive groves from which the camel driver supported his family. He then became a camel driver.

"One day, the earth began to tremble, and the Nile overflowed its banks. It was something that I thought could happen only to others, never to me. My neighbors feared they would lose all their olive trees in the flood, and my wife was afraid that we would lose our children. I thought that everything I owned would be destroyed.
"The land was ruined, and I had to find some other way to earn a living. So now I'm a camel driver.