Lady Luck’s Surprise

 

So I am back in jeddah. I still can't bear the idea that I'll spend my first summer here in KSA. While my family and cousins will be having fun in amman, I'll be stuck in this empty, boring hot place here.

Despite all that, I wanted to stay positive. Those 20 days were enough to charge my batteries again. My face stayed joyful until I passed the first check point at Amman airport.
They stopped me and decided to inspect my luggage. My luggage is composed of: laptop bag, hand bag, and a full suitcase that will cannonball items at you once you unzip it.

The authorities decided to inspect my handbag for "suspicious items".

"What's this?"

"Its my fruits bag" (note: my dad was jealous of me enjoying apricots and peaches from our home garden while he is not. So he sentenced me to bringing him one bag full of fruits)

"Fruiiiiiiiiits..niiiiiice"

I didn't like their sarcastic tone. I was unintentionally building up a compound feeling of fear and rage. I hate being inspected. After checking up the fruits, they preyed for my personal mini-bag that had my personal hygiene items.

"Shaving Gel- confiscated. Body Spray- confiscated. Perfume—keep it. Razor – we'll let it pass. Toothpaste- confiscated…"

I made the dreadful mistake---arguing

"What? Why? What do you want from these?

"These are the rules".

"What kind of rules are this? I came with them and nobody harassed me at the airport..So why you?" I was not even shouting. I was just expressing my discontent.

Apparently, they didn't it take it lightly

"WALA..who do you think you are? Don't be fooled by our civilian clothes. We are mokhabarat. How dare you speak to us like that?"

[Shocked] "sir..I didn't mean to…I was trying to understa…"

"You know what? Give me your passport…NOW…Come with me"

Shivers were running up my spine. Oh my Goddess, what did I do?

Minutes later, I was out. After they documented my passport information, they gave me a lecture on how they were being nice to me for not charging me of assaulting a government officer (WTH…assaulting an officer? I was not even shouting). My unfortunate meeting ended with a "we will watch you" signal and to be constantly inspected for the next 5 years.

Oh Great. This is the 2^nd time I get what I call "greylisted". The first one was in Canada. Apparently, I misunderstood a law at Canada airports where you should report all items that you purchase OUTSIDE Canada and its estimated value. I put none because I thought that they were interested in tobacco and alcohol items. A "5 year inspection sentence" was their own way of telling me that any shoes, clothes or perfumes I buy outside Canada shall be reported.

The drama is not over yet. Fate decides to give me another slap on the face when I descended in Jeddah airport. I roamed the place three times before I gave up on finding my luggage. It contains:

1. Most of my clothes (back at home, I have few shirts, 2 or 3 t-shirts and one pair of jeans). My shopping emergency siren is screaming like hell.
   
2. 4 DVDs (smokin aces, next, saw II, casino royale) and one playstation 2 game (tomb raider)
   
3. My Olympus C-770 Ultra camera– it's the most valuable item in my luggage. I usually pack it in my laptop bag. This was the first time I put it in a big suitcase. How unfortunate I was.
   

 

It has been more than 48 hours and my luggage is still missing in action. The Royal Jordanian airlines are trying to talk me to a compensation fee. I still refuse to consider this option. Moreover, it turns out that their compensation fee is ridiculous to mention. 100 JD..i.e. 150 US dollars. That barely covers one third the cost of my camera.

"STOOOOP"..said the security guy at the last check point. God Damn it…Now what?

"Open your laptop bag"…Oh Crap. I forgot that I was smuggling "God Of War 1" and "God of War II". One of the CDs was in the CD-ROM drive of my laptop and the other was hidden among my papers.

The officer was inspecting the bag. His X-ray machine detected the existence of a CD. To my surprise, he found the DVD of "88 minutes". I knew I had the DVD. I just forgot that it had been in my laptop bag for over a month. Luckily, it looks like the "88 minute" was positioned exactly right above my "god Of War" game, thus his X-ray machine detected one CD only.

He let me pass.

I guess I am not that unlucky after all. Its just lady luck is messing with me. J