Journey Back to Eden.pdf - St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church Chicago

6 SEPTEMBERlarge high-rises. Apparently, many of them are used by vacationersin the summertime. Here it’s breezier and the temperatures arelower than in the interior of the country, so a large number ofEgyptians come here several months of the year.I’m just getting over jet lag now. During the long days, whenmy host is attending conferences, I’m taking walks along theboardwalk. I met my first Egyptian today, that is, the first EgyptianI’ve met spontaneously, without planning, and he turned out to bea Copt. His name is Victor. He saw me looking out over the seaand he asked me if I’m an American. When he discovered that Ispeak English, he began at once to practice his English with me atsome great length, following me along the boardwalk. Finally, heprevailed upon me to visit his widowed mother. He lives with hersome blocks away. We had tea. She doesn’t speak any English at all,but spoke French, so we carried on something of a rough-hewnconversation. Victor and his mother are not only Coptic; they arealso Catholic. Victor told me that there are many Catholics inAlexandria, and that Alexandria still retains something of a moreinternational, or at least a trans-Mediterranean, character. Butsouth of Alexandria, Egypt becomes progressively more and moreIslamic all the way into Cairo. Then south of Cairo, the number ofCopts begins to increase again.Of Sand Castles and Christian ChurchesSEPTEMBER 4, THURSDAYI built a little sand castle on a nearby beach today and, intriguingly,some boys who came by—fourteen, fifteen, sixteen yearsold—watched me with great interest. Apparently, they didn’t thinkthat building sand castles is a typical activity for people to do onthe beach, and when I looked around, I noticed that no one elsewas making them. Maybe it’s something that only Americans orEuropeans do. The boys watched with interest until one of thembecame very disturbed and exclaimed in Arabic, “el kanessa,” achurch! I wasn’t dressed like a priest; I was dressed very informallyfor making a sand castle on the beach. Yet the boy thought that thecastle was a church and accused me of trying to spread Christianityin Egypt by building a representation of Christian churches! I wasvery surprised.