THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1964: LAST DAY IN ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

Thursday -- We went to the Coptic Church (which is illegal -- the church, that is). They want to get government permission and build a real church, but there'll be a long wait, if permission ever comes through at all. The lady who was our hostess was extremely obsequious to the priest, who was, by the way, married. The priest told us all about the church which was the church of St. George. At this point it was just brick with a tin roof, that the Coptic community had renovated. We met the priest's wife and a crowd of local women. On the way home, we noticed that there was a communal television in the square where everybody was watching a football game -- in the open! We went back to the casino, then to our hostess to whom we said goodbye. She gave Gail a small camel (plastic covered and somewhat flea bitten) and admired Gail's hairbrush (good old nylon and plastic - USA). [We didn't know enough at the time to gift her the hairbrush! Oh, the ignorance of the young!] Our hostess went around telling everyone about my answer to the question of whether or not I would marry an Egyptian. [I can't remember what the answer was, but I'm sure it was in the negative!] She asked us to write. . .

We left in a taxi for the Cairo train station. We had to fight off the porters (Gail nearly kicked one). The train ride back seemed longer. We tried to take pictures out of the window -- somewhat of a failure. We slept and people kept pulling the shutters on the windows up and down, blocking the view. They thought we were crazy to let the sun in for the sake of looking out the window. From the train window [when the shutters were up], we saw a little village which looked more like little burial mounds in England. We gathered that that was so as not to take up room for cultivation of the land. The flat roofs of the buildings were covered with straw -- to keep the heat down; even on top of the city buildings you saw this.

Thanks for reading . . . More from my 1964 journal tomorrow.