This summer I embarked on a journey that had absolutely no certainty. All I had was a destination: ‘Gaza’ and the very real prospect of getting stuck in Gaza for much longer that animated. SPOILER ALERT, that did happen. There are 3 main obstacles to my journey. Finding an airline to fly you to Cairo, the Egyptian ferry, and the Egyptian border. None with any sort of order or correct structure. Gaza’s airport was bombed and destroyed 12 years ago so the only way in or out of the west bank is through the Egyptian border or that through the Israeli occupied territory. As a holder of a Palestinian identity I am not allowed enter that territory.
Finding an airline that will fly me to Cairo I scarce, I am forced to book a flight and show up to the airport with the big possibility of not being able to board to Cairo because of an uncertainty whether or not the border will be open at the time of arrival. So, I showed up to the airport with my bags and actually was turned around for that reason. I went home and canceled to try again the next day with another airline. So the second day I come back to the airport with the new airline and I actually got on the plane and took off.
After landing in Cairo I needed someone to take me to the border, luckily, I found someone on Facebook 3 days earlier named Muhammed who agreed to take me to the border. When we got in the car he shocked me with the news that this might be a 3-day trip to the border.
3 hours out of Cairo I found myself at a ferry crossing, and the line is 200 cars long, Muhammad told me that the ferry only takes a single load of 50 cars a day, so we would need at least 3 days to cross. And even if we cross we would immediately join a military escort for about 50km after that. At this point, you could probably sense that I am thinking about turning around, but I was determined for reasons I will later explain.
I got out of the car and walked to the front of the line, listening to the stories I hear that people have been in line for upwards 5 days to a week. None of the cars have air conditioning on because there I a lack of gas outside of Cairo, so whatever is in the tank needed to last the rest of the 450km trip to the border and back to Cairo, so AC was not a thing.
At this point, it is about 4am on a Tuesday. So if a further 3 days was needed at the ferry does not work on Fridays and Saturdays with the addition of the border being closed the following week for the Muslim Haj Pilgrimage, crossing that day was not looking like a thing. I persuaded a driver down the line to sell his passengers to cars ahead and offered him 500 Egyptian pounds for him to take his car out so I and the driver can take that place. And luckily, we were the last car to board the ferry, we literally got on and the boat closed right behind us.
So we cross and get in line for the police escort and we move, it’s still Tuesday but by the time we got the city of El – Erich the Egyptian border closed so I knew there was no way I could leave Egypt that day. I got online opened Expedia a booked a hotel. It looks like the whole IOT hasn’t really taken any real stance there. Because when I got to the hotel and said I had reserved a hotel the guy behind the counter picks up a notebook and says no you didn’t book on the phone. I re-explained the concept of Expedia and said oh. Only the manager can cheek and gets emails about Expedia reservations. So, I replay go get the manager and would you look at the odds, the manager went home, and his phone is switched off. So, they sent someone to the manager's house to confirm the reservation even though I have it opened on my phone. You can probably tell that someone got a bad review.
Next morning, we get back in the car and drive the hour and a half to the border and we get there at 11:00am on a Wednesday morning. Now the Egyptians have a very odd way of doing things, like in groups. So I get to the border and about 500 people are all trying to get in line to pass through a double door, it takes about an hour and a half to get through those doors. Now the Egyptians don’t know how to read English, so they give you a form you copy all the information from your passport on to that sheet and hand it in. but get in line there are 500 people all trying to do the same thing.
But they process everyone and get people all processed at one until they begin giving passports back. the place lacks an intercom system and electricity in general so the officers who are in plain clothes are yelling at the crowd of people.
Make your way out of the building and there is a fee for the 24 hours of torture spent and the border before getting crammed onto a bus to get to the other end. Now getting unloaded at the Palestinian end there was a huge relief, passport processing tock no more than 10min and I collected my bags form a converter belt right after immigration and seeing my family on the other side felt like I have just arrived in heaven.
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