Tanks for the memories

Monday

Cell, but no internet. Curfew moved back to begin at 3PM. So much for our 3:15 flight on Thurs.

Polly arranged to leave before 8AM lifting of previous night’s curfew (smartest move ever) with her favorite driver and guide, Mohammed, to whom she bequeathed her excess bag full of goodies. She was told by the task force that we were allowed 1 checked and 1 carry-on each for the evac.  She had been on a 3-week trip. Was it genetic imperative that they didn’t bother to tell Chris that?

Polly was most worried about the cab ride to the airport, even before we realized that the cab was fueled by a tank of benzene in the trunk.

Besides the obvious, this left little room for suitcases and the cab was full with 5 bodies (Mohammed and the cab driver, plus the 3M’s), so her big, purple American bag had to be tied to the roof. On the bright side, gas stations had been closed for days and we happily scurried past many long lines of cars waiting for fuel that morning. Insallah.

Despite being marked as tourists, we cleverly travelled with headscarf disguises (!) 



At least they were good fun - I think I know what I'll be for Halloween

 The tension created by 8 or 10 military tank and vigilante checkpoints which funneled us down to 1 lane from 3 was offset my Mohammed’s optimistic reasoning and faith that things were getting better. It looked like a war zone most of the way along our 90 minute trip (normally 45) which included going right past Mubarek’s residence. The biggest delay was approaching the airport, although the relief was culpable that we were beyond the major trouble spots. God help us if we had waited for the curfew to lift!

9AM- pulled up to Terminal 4, out of which no commercial flights ran. Maybe 150-200 people were there waiting inside and out of the small terminal.

10:30 - American state dept employees (good little border collies that they are) arrived with bullhorns and began the process of herding us into lines and into categories- diplomatic status, US citizens and non-US nationals, telling us more about the luggage limitations and that we would each have to sign promissory notes to pay back the govt. for these flights the amount of a normal one-way ticket to our destination, which we were told was either going to be Athens, Istanbul or some city in Cypress. No animals allowed. By now there are at least 1000 of us, with more buses arriving at an alarming rate.

Polly had to jettison about 15 pounds of weight from her big American bag, but luckily our little bags could expand and still be less than 44 pounds to handle her overflow. Asian Americans near us were very, VERY popular with their luggage scales. We were standing outside in the sun at this time, still euphoric.

Then we won the lottery.