Woke up in anticipation of the day ahead hoping that after Thursday everything would go without any setbacks. The four of us went down for our breakfast, Doug was again telling Hamada it wasn’t too late to do a runner, blooming cheek of him. We had our breakfast , it was like de ja vu so said Ruth, and it was. We arrived at the ministry, Hamadas brother Hassan was waiting for him, bless him, and again we sat and waited for our names to be called.

Eventually we were called in, I wanted Doug and Hassan to be the witnesses for us but it had to be two Egyptian males so a guest from another party witnessed for us, and by the smiles on his face he was very happy to oblige us. Now there are no airs and graces here no fuss, i was just told we were married under islamic law. We both had to sign five pages and thumb print our five photographs and that was it my civil ceremony in Egypt. Never the less we were still very happy. We went out the building and stopped to take photographs but the policeman on duty wouldn’t let us take them outside so we had to move on. We crossed over and stood on the roundabout to take some very quickly because Hassan had to leave and return to work, getting time off work is very difficult in Egypt. Oh and of course whoever was taking the photographs had to dodge the traffic too haha.

We went to have something to eat and then returned to the hotel to relax. I fell asleep by the pool and when Hamada woke me there was a beautiful basket of pink roses from Ruth and Doug.

So now we are free to do as we want and go where we want, in Egypt anyway. It has been a very difficult time because you are so restricted there, we don’t appreciate how lucky we are or the freedom we have here.

But i love being here it is another world and i have learnt so much about Hamada, the Egyptian people, they are so lovely and friendly, and they just love it when you speak, wave to them, anything. I felt so welcome and truly honoured to be there.

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