The World Out There - Softcover

Rothman, Stanley; Rothman, Janet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1401081770 ISBN 13: 9781401081775

Publisher: Xlibris Corp, 2003

Synopsis

The World Out There, Volunteering in the Third World

About this title

About the Author

BS Yale, MS Columbia University, Former Consultant to the President's Crime Commission and the National Academies of Science and Engineering, 30 year career in IT VP of MIS Marriott Ciroiration

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

After finishing our assignment in The Gambia, we decided to treat ourselves to a tour of the animal preserves in Kenya. The only way to get from West Africa to Kenya was by way of London. When we bought the tickets in London, we made the mistake of ticketing ourselves out of Cairo to Kenya by way of a stopover in Khartoum, Sudan, ignorant of how much the current regime in Sudan hated Americans. When we got off the plane in Khartoum, we were told our connecting flight had left two hours ago.

"That s hard to believe."

"I don t like the feel of this."

We were seated in a transit area watched over by a large military officer sporting an AK 47. Our request to talk to the American Embassy was denied, as was our request to call the people we were supposed to meet in Kenya.

"This is getting scary."

Two other people were detained. An Italian immediately bribed the guard and left, something we were afraid to do and a Saudi was also detained. When the guard left the room temporarily, the Saudi said in perfect English, "You better get out of this country as soon as possible."

He promptly departed leaving us alone with the guard. Stan was allowed out of the transit area and found a translator on the possibility that our requests weren t understood. The guard dismissed him summarily. As the hours went by and nothing happened we avoided any eye contact with the guard.

Stan whispered, "Let s pretend to sleep. Any sign of weakness on our part will only prompt cruelty by the guard. " And this is exactly what we did.

The Greek government, which was communist at the time, had a record of Stan s relationship with the CIA. During our honeymoon, the Security people had notified the then conservative Greek government that we were coming providing some kind of protection and access to a safe house if necessary. If the Sudanese Intelligence Service checked with the current left wing regime in Greece we could be accused of being spies.

Finally after about five hours of pretending to sleep a woman who was an official of Sudan Air showed up and speaking spotty English said we would be put up in a hotel in Khartoum but it would not be possible to leave the country for three days. That felt like a hostage situation. But we had no choice and followed her to a van and took off for downtown Khartoum in the dark leaving her on the sidewalk. Fortunately the hotel, which looked like a dismal rat trap, was full and we headed back to the airport. As we approached the terminal Janet announced her plan. "There isn t a man alive who can resist a screaming woman." As we approached the terminal, she screamed bloody murder causing the driver to stop at which point we jumped out of the van and dashed for the entrance to the terminal. It worked as far as the terminal where the doors, unfortunately, opened only outward. Some kind soul let us in and then we went to plan B. Desperate, Stan bribed an Egypt Air official to get us out of the country. For $500 he got our passports and luggage back from the Sudanese and told us to sit in the waiting room. Three successive times we and everyone else waiting for the flight to Cairo were searched and, finally, as we lined up with the others near our airplane, a black Mercedes pulled up and judging by their side-arms Police Officers got out.

Janet asked quietly, "Is this the final scene of Casablanca? Where Claude Rains and Bogart after shooting the Germans who arrived at the last minute to stop Ingrid Bergman and Paul Heinried from escaping Casablance on the plane, walk off arm in arm, telling subordinates to round up the usual suspects?"

"We should be so lucky."

As it turned out, the cops in the black Mercedes were there to be first up the stairs and get the best plane seats for themselves. We didn t feel safe until the wheels were up. When we got to Cairo, Stan called the US Ambassador to complain that he was not allowed to call the US Embassy in Khartoum. The Ambassador s assistant said we were lucky to get out alive. The US Embassy in Khartoum had been closed because they were unable to protect US citizens. When Stan shared this information with Janet, they both fell silent at how close they had come to harms way.

Now, suddenly, we felt safe with all the AK 47 s guarding every street corner in Cairo. We had been in harms way but got off easy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Xlibris Corp
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1401081770
• ISBN 13: 9781401081775
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 164