Reflections on an abrupt end: Courtesy of the Egyptian Government

What happens to someone when he arrives at the airport of Cairo, and the authorities tell him that he is no longer welcome in Egypt because of his evangelism?  This is the first hand account of someone that went through this exerience in the summer of 2006.  Our anonmous missionary writes:

‘As I sat in the plane waiting to take off, I rang my wife to thank her for her wonderful support over these past 9 years (she thought I sounded a bit suicidal).  I was just trying to say thank you to her for the freedom and rock solid support she had given me over all the ups and downs of our time in Egypt. I mentioned to her however that this was one event that wasn’t in my ‘book’.   You see I have a spreadsheet which details my life activities until I’m 65 or 67 (don’t we all!), things like each child’s age, school stages, boarding school, university, home assignments, completion of studies, decision points, work outcome dates etc. I just hadn’t quite planned on making 2006 my year of departure from Egypt! Of course you could conclude that God had not read my spreadsheet properly – and basically when I was first held up in customs that’s the feeling I had – (and still have) a quiet disbelief that this was possible and that God would allow this to happen.

Egypt has really been very kind to me and to us as a family.  Our children have grown up in a pretty care free happy world.  I have loved the opportunities I have had to serve there, the friendships I have developed with Egyptians, the tangible impact we have been able to make on the lives of the poor- -all in all a deeply satisfying and congruent process.  I feel overwhelmingly fortunate that God has blessed us with such an experience.  At the same time though I feel quite a lot of grief, especially at the abrupt nature of the ending. Nevertheless,  I am certain that this is happening for a reason – and I look forward to seeing the fruit of it – even if it hurts just now.

As I sit on this balcony – I’m in tears again – I’m not usually so emotional.  It’s a volatile mixture – sending children off to boarding school and then getting kicked out of the country you’ve called home for 9 years.  Saying farewell to my son was very painful – he clung to me and we both sobbed.  My daughter (with a year of boarding school already under her belt) told me afterwards that she was embarrassed for her friends to see her father crying!  It’s wonderful to see those sensitivity genes expressing themselves!

Saying goodbye to Egypt was different – no preparation.  It feels more like a sudden death – so many things in process, so many things undone, so many things unsaid and so many friendships stranded midstream.  My staff in Egypt have really been rocked by my inability to return.  They (and I) felt there should have been more we could do – this all seemed so unfair, so unreasonable – wasn’t there someone we could just explain this misunderstanding too.  After all everything in Egypt is negotiable! Although legally not possible, I did manage (through the quirks of Egyptian bureaucracy) to see my general manager.  We hugged and wept again – men hugging and weeping in a Middle Eastern context is less of a spectacle I guess.

I feel for my staff more than anything right now. They feel abandoned and uncertain of what comes next (don’t worry, my messianic pretensions stop here). We had talked in the past of the possibility of this happening, but of course it’s still deeply shocking when it does.

The 24 hours I spent in detention was another Egyptian cultural tour de force – (which I can’t resist sharing with you).

I spent almost all my time in a windowless room with one fan and 16 chain smoking recidivists – some of them dressed in police uniforms. It was adjacent to a very smelly toilet and there were quite a few apparently smoke resistant mosquitoes. My criminal compatriots (I really felt   – and was treated like, someone with dubious qualities) included the following; 5 young Bangledeshi men who had been conned by an immigration agent in Bangladesh and given false visas, 2 young men (it turns out from Colombo in Sri Lanka) masquerading as Singaporeans (complete with false passports) accompanied by their older Singaporean minder who apparently did have a real passport.  There was also a number of Egyptians (including two young women) who had had the misfortune to have loose their travel documents or who did not have the appropriate exit stamps in their visas.

Based on a shared world view – cricket – I found I was able to relate readily to my Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan brothers (Muslims).  I also found myself acting as a translator between these, at best broken English speaking young men, and the non-English speaking Egyptian officials. I didn’t quite fulfill the promise of The Terminal (great movie if you haven’t seen it) and Tom Hanks – but I felt I had definite potential. Our entertainment included having the two Sri Lankan men strip searched in front of us and interrogated until they finally acknowledged that they weren’t Singaporean. This particular bit of late night viewing started at about 2am and certainly helped to break the otherwise oppressive monotony. During this time, when my professional translation skills were called for, I took on a new identity –– they would call out ‘ya – austraali!’

Of course during my time there I sought the high moral ground (not to mention health and safety policy development) by seeking to implement a non-smoking policy in the holding room – ie all smokers had to leave the room to smoke……..  It held for about half an hour. In the end I would walk out and sit between the toilets and the holding room – suspiciously watched by a guard incase I made a dash for freedom! It was so hot in the room that I didn’t eat for the entire time I was there – (although food could be bought if you had money). At one stage I thought someone had poisoned my water until I realized it was just the water reacting with all the nicotine in my mouth.

Ala ‘The Terminal’, some people had been kept in that room for days if not weeks. The Bangledeshi men had no money and had been there for four days without eating. I was treated like a long lost Uncle after I bought them all bean sandwiches for breakfast (as much as they could eat!). In the midst of all this  – it was hard (although still possible) to dwell on my own misfortune for too long – and to tell the truth – feeding of inmates aside – I was very happy to see the comparatively kind manner with which the Egyptian police dealt with these people.

Mind you, the officials still managed to drive me nuts. We had a major argument because they insisted that I return to Dubai as that was where I had come from. I informed them that unless they wanted to pay for the ticket – the only place I was going to fly to was the one of my choice (I was bluffing – I would have flown anywhere to get out of that smoke infested, sweaty, smelly room). Finally they rang the security police who graciously agreed that I would be able to fly direct to the destination of my choice. However there was only one ticket left and the Egyptian officials managed to drag their feet for 3.5 hours before eventually taking me yesterday to buy the ticket. When we finally got there it was 2.30pm and the flight was at 5.50pm. The place was overflowing with people and they even had a number system running – I was number 300 and they were currently on 263. So I did the Egyptian thing – I jumped the queue! – after all if you can’t benefit from 9 years of enculturation then there has to be something wrong with you….. One thing was for sure – I was desperate to get away and no social etiquette was going to come between me and that flight last night!

In this truly Egyptian experience, the policeman who accompanied me to the departure gate did the final eloquent touch by asking for ‘haga helwa’ – something sweet – I mean after all he was kicking me out of the country nicely – and just to prove how well I’d become enculturated – I gave him a tip!

As the plane pulled away from Egypt I reflected that it was an Egypt Air flight from Cyprus that had first brought us to Egypt 9 years ago – an airline I have successfully avoided since and hence it was kind of fitting to be leaving by the same door we entered! Through all of this my wife has been a tower of strength for me, taking it one step at a time with me and coping with the blows as they came – for which I’m very grateful.

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