02-15-2008
I slept quite well that night although the night for me lasted only 4 hours. I woke up in the middle of the night and was completely dazed; I did not have a clue where I was. It took me a while to recognize the Washington hotel room. I went back to sleep and woke up at about 4:00 in the morning. Someone would take me to the airport. I phoned the reception to know if I could have breakfast before leaving. of course it was silly of me to call, everything was still closed. I was hoping that this was also different from Morocco. Hotels do not start serving breakfasts until 6:00 am. Well, this hotel was no difference. I had a glass of chamomile since the hotels provide coffee and tea bags in the rooms with a water heater. That was at least something that I could drink.
When I went down to the lobby, Robert Harrison, program specialist, international institute apparently knew me from the picture and came to meet me. Well at 5:00 am he was there to meet me. He tried to help me call my family just to say I was ok. We used a phone card the Fulbright program gave me but it did not work. So Robert explained to me again some of the procedures and introduced me to the driver who was going to take me to the Ronald Reagan Airport. There was no luggage to worry about, so I just went into the van.
Once at the airport, the formalities were so complicated. Luckily, I had no luggage to drug or stand in a line to weigh. I went directly to have the actual ticket as I had only an electronic one. Later I followed the directions that led me to the gate I had to go through. And there I was to go through the same inspections and minute searches. I was selected for secondary inspection, but I can understand that. I was the only woman with a scarf on my head and looking exclusively Muslim; they had to worry. My American friends usually say that after 9-11 travel is no longer fun in USA. They are right; I do not think I can go through all this another time; this is at least what I think right now. I noticed something weird though in the airports: most of the people working there and doing all the inspections were not basically Americans. They spoke broken English and physically were far from being typical Americans. I know that America is a diverse country, but how would it put its fate in the hands of newly naturalized Americans from Ethiopia, Pakistan or Tunisia and treating others like with suspision?
I was able after some minutes to get into the boarding area. I waited a little and embarked into the plane. It was a plain plane, nothing like the one I took from Paris to Washington. The aircraft company was this time Delta. At least I felt no discrimination; the stewardesses gave to every one crackers and cold or hot drinks with the same unexpressive smile. We arrived to Cincinnati, apparently a city in the state of Ohio (I checked the map) and had to deplane for an hour. I went into the airport, bought a phone card at 20 dollars to call my family. The procedure was so complicated that I quitted and went back in the plane. For the first time since I started this experience the plane was full. My neighbors were a young afro- American couple. They were travelling to Arizona for the first time on business. They asked me about my country and of course did not know at all where it was located. So I implemented an elementary geography lesson using a virtual map. Yet although, they pretended to see where it was, it was clear they did not understand a anything.
The flight was very long, 5 or 6 hours, I do not remember and I can no longer measure time. We could have crackers and a drink for free otherwise we should pay if we wanted to eat something that tastesd something. I renounced to use this prerogative and did not order anything for two reasons: I was not sure I could eat what they would serve, and I did not want to start spending my money especially that I had not yet cashed my stipend check.
When we got near to Arizona, the view from the heights was just fabulous. It was like a framed painting minutely colored and architecturally drawn.
I was worried however, that my American partner and host , Georgeanna Wielkoszewski did not get the message of my arrival and was not there to meet me. But, gone were the times of bad events, she was there with her husband. We met like old friends meet and she was very happy of meeting me, needless to say that I was even happier as I felt more secured. We did a kind of tour around the international airport of Phoenix Scottsdale. Some of the handicraft of native Americans were exposed. They resemble to a great extent the handicraft of morocco especially the saddles made out of leather and the hand made carpets; it is amazing to see that human beings think and do sometimes the same thing although they had never met each other. But who knows? Maybe there was some kind of artistic interaction in history that we know nothing about.