It took forever for us to cross the border because there were 6 Palestinian Americans in front of me in line. They had been to Syria and were getting grilled with questions. The questions ranged from "What were you doing in Sweden in 2004?" to "Who is your uncle married to?" They seemed to be having a hard time with the family tree but I found out later that the guards were asking about in-laws and since they were cousins they weren't familiar with all the in laws. At one point, a guy came out and yelled for one of them named Olga. He found here and then announced to the whole waiting room that she was going to Jordan today and not to Israel. She would get a red stamp in her passport and never be allowed in again. I think that was all for show because she was questioned again and eventually they all made it in.
Luckily the border guards changed so I got a fresh one. I was worried I would get one of the lady guards who was bossing the people around in front of me. My lady was pretty nice and I even pulled out the guide book to show her where I was staying.
I made it through and Ian did too. Andrew took 2 hours longer because his mother is Egyptian making him of Arab descent. He told us all the did was make him wait and ask him the same questions about 30 times. Where are you going? Why? What do you do in the US? Where are you from? He showed them some surgery photos on his ipod to explain what he did in the US and that grossed them out. They certainly believed he did surgery though. Then, they relaxed a little bit when he told them he was going to Bethleham because that's where Jesus was born. The guard realized he was Christian not Muslim.
I think the Jordan/Israel border crossing is one of the world's most difficult and it certainly proved so.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment