I know, I didn't post once last week. Well, hopefully the lack of posting from last week will be made up by the blog entries I have for this week. I'll start us off with a somewhat crazy post for today.
Last Wednesday I was detained by the military. That’s right. It was the craziest thing. But I can’t just jump into it, I have to start earlier in the day. So….
I spent the majority of the day in a city about an hour away from where I live. I went with two other guys to visit some local Arab friends who live out in another city. The food and visiting with our friends went great and I hope to visit them again.
My two friends and I arrived back in our city a little before 8 PM. When we were dropped off I was only about a 30 minute walk from my house, and since the weather was nice and it was a pretty night I thought I would just walk home. Being that I like to take pictures, I immediately saw opportunities for a few cool night shots.
I walk for about 15 minutes, taking pictures of many random things, but mostly just the night life and traffic. I’m minding my own business just taking a picture when I hear someone yelling at me and coming towards me. At first I ignore it because there are lots of noises here that I just tend to ignore. Finally, I look up to see a guy decked out in military fatigues with a gun in hand standing over me. I knew instantly that this would be a long night.
This was the shot that got me detained.
He directs me to a little booth and I notice that I’m at the entrance of a military compound. (I felt so stupid for not noticing what I was standing by when I was taking the picture, but honestly I was just so focused on getting the shot that I failed to see the obvious. If I had noticed, I surely would’ve kept walking and not stopped to take a picture there.) At the booth I speak some Arabic, trying to explain that I was sorry and didn’t realize where I was. No dice. A higher ranking guy comes up and motions to me to follow him.
Somewhat nervous and a tad exasperated I follow. I try to explain to him that I will gladly show him the picture; that it was a simple shot of the traffic lights, and that I could just erase it and be on my way. He only responds, “No problem, do not worry.”
I’m taken inside and led to a room where ANOTHER higher ranking guy is sitting. There are military men of all types walking around. They motion for me to sit down. At this point I look around and take note of where I am. Imagine a dorm common room where people go to hang out and sit and watch TV. There are probably 6 people in the room including myself.
This is where the story becomes one of those “Shut up, did that really happen?” – stories. I sit down and am offered a glass of orange juice (which was amazing; it must’ve been fresh squeezed). It’s at this point that I start to think I don’t really have anything to fear, I mean I am sitting with a bunch of army guys who are lounging around watching soccer while I sip orange juice. Nevertheless, it took me some time to ease my fears. They begin to question me. I do my best to answer in my broken Arabic and this cuts a lot of the tension right away. They smile and laugh. I think they were pleased with my attempting to speak their language. Their English is rough, but good enough for me to get across who I am and what I was doing out on the street taking pictures.
The guy who I ate dinner with was extremely friendly and spoke good English. I became fast friends with him! After dinner, we sat back down and just hung out with 5 other army guys while they joked in Arabic and watched soccer. I even drank the Arabic coffee they put in front of me…. This was huge for me, I cannot stand even normal coffee and Arabic coffee nearly put me on my back, but somehow I got through it.
I finally muster the courage to ask if everything was okay. My new friend simply says “Yes, this is just friend time now.” I nearly laughed at the upfront way he said that. Apparently, I was just one of their group of friends hanging now. I asked if I could leave soon thereafter as it was getting late and I was told yes, they weren’t going to hold me. I was bid farewell with a smile from everyone in the room and then escorted out back to the street. I didn’t get home until well after 11, but at this point I was wired from all the caffeine. I still find it hard to believe that I had such good fortune. Not only was everything ok, but I was given the opportunity to make some great new contacts. Somebody up there must like me…. Haha.
