162. Alexandria

162.

Alexandria, Egypt: We came down here by train.

The Doc has some contacts in this city, which turn out to be very rich, so one of the first things we do is go for an afternoon sail in the yacht harbor. Everyone in the Alexandria Yacht Club speaks French.

Next day we are invited to a party at a private beach forty kilometers out of town. The other guests are ten young men who are army officers and about the same number of single young women. We spend the entire day listening to dirty jokes told by the soldiers. One joke I remember which is not dirty is about the reason Egypt lost the “Six-day War” with Israel. “We lost because to save money our tanks were manufactured with only one gear, but the gear was reverse!”

Most of the young people I meet at the party want to immigrate to America. I meet one young man who is quite determined. His family has saved enough money to send him to New York with a thirty-day tourist visa. He hopes to find some American woman willing to marry him during the thirty days and use that marriage as a key to US citizenship. When he gains his US citizenship he hopes to bring over his entire family. I don’t know what the rules for gaining citizenship are at this time but it may work.

Some of the young women I meet suggest I could marry them so they could become US citizens. They say their families would even pay me quite well for the service and we didn't have to be "really married". Somehow this does not seem to me like a particularly honorable thing to do or a very solid foundation for a marriage relationship.

The Egyptians I meet all say they like America and Americans. Many have relatives in the states and most of the young ones would like to attend a university in the USA. They are generally afraid of the USA’s pro-Israeli policies and, of course, fear our ICBM’s and atomic weapons.

I watch American TV programs with Arabic dubbing and dance with the pretty daughters of Doc’s contacts to American music.

Alexandria’s museum has some interesting leftovers from the various conquerors that have passed through—the Greeks, the Romans and the rest, but there seems to be absolutely no trace of the famous but very well-burned library.

...