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Pain of a traveler

Published by flag- Anwar Dehaq — 5 years ago

0 Tags: flag-ye Erasmus experiences Sanaa, Sanaa, Yemen


On Thursday morning, 22 October 2015, at 9 am, my friend and I went to Sana'a International Airport to travel to Amman, the capital city of the Hashemite Jordanian kingdom. This city where the ancient Roman and Umayyad civilizations were established.
Jordan was the only country at that time that allowed Yemeni airlines to land at its airport, But before arriving to Jordan we have to pass by bisha saudi airport, and here my story began....
After waiting at Sanaa airport for the arrival of the plane on which we will be traveling, the flight was scheduled for 12 noon. For unknown reasons, we could not travel until 7pm. The plane started to rise from the Yemeni territory. This trip was not my first trip, but I felt as it was my first.
The captain began by welcoming us and providing us with information about the flight, the altitude of the plane, its speed and the usual line of protocol. But what caught my attention was that the captain when he was talking about the itinerary, he said that we would go down at Bishah airport for inspection the tone of his voice was very sad.
I felt that there was something undesirable that would happen from the expressions of the crew faces, after a short time we landed at Bisha airport  the military airport that expanded for Yemeni planes to be inspected but that is not the main reason we all know ..
Customs officers began to enter the plane, two persons rode the plane without talking to anyone even the crew of the flight. After that they got off the plane. Couple of minutes later, two men wearing Saudis’ national dress with black glasses on their expression-free faces entered the plane, their eyes which was barely visible were moving in all directions, they started to search and check the passports one at the right of the plane and the other on the left. The boredom began to creep into me because of the long wait. My neighbor in the seat number 13G was an American woman wondering what is going on. Beside me, a Jew -Yemenite Jew- with his children behind him, and in the front was a man who cries out of pain. Suddenly the Saudi intelligence man came to the American woman and asked her for the passport, but the woman does not understand what he means since he was talking in arabic. The man then smiled and said to her as he was chewing gum provocatively: passport ma’am. Then she gave him the passport, he opened her passport and started flipping pages, he asked her: "Are you alone?"
She replied in english: Yes, but then she went on to say: I’m married to a Yemeni man but he did not come with me. The expressions of the intelligence man changed to anger and asked sarcastically: “Is marriage from a Yemeni man good or not ?!”, she replied even without thinking : “Yes, it is very very good.”
The intelligence man continues to check passports, not to search for a name or anything, but to deliver a message that we can stop you any time we want. The intelligence man continued to pass the passports until he reached the seat next to me. He was a distinguished man, he took the passport out of his jackets’ pocket it was a diplomatic passport. Without any justification, the intelligence man took the passport and put it in his pocket and moved to the next seat. The features of the diplomat's face changed quickly to anger. I said to him: “Relax, every thing will be fine we are all with you”. the intelligence man kept walking between the seats and examines the passports with the very noisy chewing gum in his mouth until he reached the seat next to me from the other side where the Jew was sitting. Intelligence man knew he was a Jew through sashes that on his head, he confiscated his passport and said to him: "You are traveling with whom?”, The Jew answered with fear: “My kids, my brother's kids and I." The intelligence man asked for passports. The Jew took the six passports and gave them to him, Without looking at the jew or saying anything the intelligence man took the passport and left, my friend looked at the Jew and smiled and said to him: "Do not worry, especially you they are not going to do anything harmful to you, and they will not dare to do.
The intelligence officer continued to walk and inspect in the same provocative manner. The hostess in the plane was walking over and over the passenger seats with anxiety and anger. I went after her involuntarily and asked her: “Is there anything or someone bothering you? " she replied: No, thank you, but I hate to stand in this place because I feel constrained”, I was surprised by her words and what raised my admiration more that she was not a Yemeni nationality, but from another Arab nationality and feels the restrictions of the inspection of the plane, so what would be the passengers feelings looks like! , I returned to my seat and saw the diplomatic man as he turns right and left and the features of concern is painted on his face as well as the Yemeni Jew, He was worried and was looking to his children while they were sleep.
I felt a sad feeling as


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