Originally written on August 09, 2006 and is a detailed play by play report of what was going on, in regards to the actual flight and such of SV034 to Jeddah.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
This was written on Flight SV034 to Jeddah from JFK Airport in New York. I was so tired, but the excitement of the trip was keeping me awake, so I could not even sleep if I wanted to. Just a daily log of the days events, and oh yeah…this was originally written on August 03, 2006 at approximately 3 AM (Toronto and New York time), and then updated later on August 04, 2006 at around 10 PM Jeddah time at the Al-Hatithy Hotel in Jeddah, KSA.
I can not believe that I am going on this trip, but it all started off as just another ordinary day. I woke up really late for an early flight, and in my scramble to get ready, I found that I was in a state of peace and calm. Mom, Ahmed and Huda all came with me to drop me off at Pearson Airport for my 11:15 am flight to LaGuardia, New York. Since Baba had already left for work in the morning, I could not say Allah Hafiz to him, for which I am greatly disappointed. We all settled in the car, late as usual and raced to the airport. Traffic it seems was against us, but we persevered on and finally got to Pearson Airport with almost an hour and half to spare. However on route to the airport, we were stopped by the police (yikes!) and were issued a ticket. Apparently Mom had driven in a ‘No through Way’ lane and the police officer issued Mom a ticket. This of course took some time out of our planned trip to the airport, but we were running behind anyways, so it didn’t really matter.
Upon getting to Pearson Airport, I breezed through Check-In (thank you Ahmed for helping me with the Express Lane) and met up with my group leader, Urz (she was the designated group leader for the Canadian group—the late comers). After some heartfelt goodbyes with Mom, Ahmed and Huda (I actually did not cry...something I thought I would definitely do…go figure), I breezed through customs and found Gate H.
I gravitated towards the Hijabis sitting in a corner of the waiting area, and introduced myself…Askaa was right, its easy to spot the Rihla people (find some Hijabis who look like thy are lost…works like a charm). I met up with Lamia (hoping to do Graduate studies in the future), Amena (a French teacher in the Jane/Finch area), Yusra (a Financial consultant), Sabina (an English teacher on route to met up with her husband in Doha, and start teaching for a 3 year contract), Sana and Mustafa (18 and 16 year old siblings who came all the way from Edmonton to join us Toronto Rihla goers) and Urz (our group leader). We all talked about what we all did, and things like that to get aquanted with each other in the hour we had before our flight to New York. Around 10:40 am we boarded our flight (Air Canada 0708) to LaGuardia Airport in New York, but since Sana and Mustafa were on standby, we would have to meet up with them at LaGuardia Airport, in New York. It felt weird leaving the youngest two members of our group alone to their own design, but there was nothing we could do. Urz tried really hard to get them on the same flight (apparently there was an issue with their baggage being already destined to another flight after us) but to no luck. With a sense of discomfort about the “KIDS” we left to LaGuardia, NY.
We arrived at LaGuardia Airport, claimed our baggage and met up with two more sisters from Toronto (who had originally planned to arrive via London England, but the Visa situation had forced them to come through USA). Shazia and Iffat joined the Canadian group, and then we were eight people (the ‘Kids’ had yet to arrive). We all talked and sat around for the other part of our group, when who should arrive…Urz’s friend Saad, who came bearing gifts of amazing Halal Chicken Kababs (those were soooo good). Saad was an entertaining individual, who tried to help as best he could (he piled all of our luggage on a trolley and got a porter to push it around for us girls) and then went around to find us a place to pray in LaGuardia Airport (did you know that apparently airports do not have a prayer room or a chapel—weird I thought they would…we ended praying in small groups in the hallway of a broken elevator on the third floor of the airport).
Thanks to him we had a good time eating (we were all starving) and then the discussion that followed was equally entertaining (about Farath Hasmi and her school of thought). I sent out postcards to Appa and Home, from New York so that I didn’t feel so homesick. Its weird, I’ve only been gone for no more than a few hours and I already feel like I miss everyone. I wonder how it will feel when I’m in Makkah and Madinah. Finally we met up with the Kids and then figred out a way to get ot JFK Airport so that we could get our flight to Jeddah.
The Saudi Airlines terminal at JFK was extreamly Ghetto, it seemed like the place was breaking down, but a brother Al-Hashmi at the counter helped us al out greatly when he found out that we were all from Dar El Salam Tour group, and basically allowed us to bypass all the security clearances so that we could check-in as soon as possible. He asked us all to make Dua for him in Makkah and Madinah (which I Insha-Allah will do so). We sat around in the gate and ate the rest of the Chicken Kabaabs that Saad had so graciously bought for us (on the floor no doubt, it looks like we are setting up camp) and then after an hour and half boarded our flight to Jeddah (SV 034).
Update:
The flight was the most part uneventful; except that I found a prayer area in the main cabin of the flight (which seriously surprised me…though praying there when there is turbulence is a whole different matter). I tried to sleep for the most part, but the adrelalin of the trip just kept me awake ( and the inflight movies in the individual screens were a bonus). I listened to CDs on the ‘Fiqh of Umrah’ and the proper Adab of visiting the Prophet, along with my CDs of Islamic songs and nasheeds (Sami Yusuf and Native Deen anyone?) for most of the trip.
Arriving in Jeddah was really like going back in time, surreal to say the least. I put on my Jilbab, and was ready for the heat of Jeddah’s tarmac (the flight landed on the runway and a bus/tram car took us to the International Arrivals Terminal of Jeddah Airport. We got the Terminal and all stood in line in one great big group to go through customs, hopiong to be in our hotel in a few hours. The custom agents (all Saudi men) refused to let us in with out a Mahram (all ten of us Canadians), and since Shakyh Hamza Yusuf was our Mahram (he was at the hotel at the time), customs officials refuse to issue us the Umrah stamps so that we can enter Saudi Arabia. This obviously freaked us all out, and considering we had just been through an almost 24 hour journey, we were all too exhausted and tired to stand.
Alhamdulillah, Urz called the Dar El Salam coordinator in Jeddah (he was waiting outside customs for us) and he talked to the Saudi Custom agents and got us cleared through customs as soon as he could. We all breezed through customs like royalty (they did not even check our bags) and then as we were moving on to the parking lot and the bus that would take us to the hotel, I spotted Zaffar Chacha just waiting for me. I have not seen this man since I was 11 years old, so I was a little emotional when I met up with him, to say the least. He pulled a Baba trick on me and made me talk to everyone I could think off. I spoke with Chachi (her health is good), and his kids, Munibah (who is on holidays from school) and Mujtaba (who was getting ready for his move to London to study Aeronautical Engineering InshaAllah). He also let me talk to Mama (all the way in Toronto) so that she would know that I was Alhamdulliah fine after my trip and that I was safe and sound in Jeddah.
I parted from Zaffar Chacha (and explained to my group that he was my uncle who I haven’t seen for 11 years), boarded the bus to Al-Harithy Hotel (really really nice hotel in Jeddah) and checked in. Since us Canadians were the latecomers of the Rihla group, we all had to wait for some time to get our Hotel Rooms in order. I was put up in Room 1123 with Amena and Lamia from our Canadian group. After we all went up to our rooms, we just washed our faces and then made an appearance at Dinner, at approximately 8pm Jeddah time, where all the sisters of Rihla (from the UK and USA) all asked us about our long journey to Rihla. I met an amazing sister, a convert from London, Sr. Susan, who has such Noor on her person, and is an absolute treasure to be around. Lamia, Amena and myself were the only Canadians at dinner, because majority of the other Canadians rested and came down much later (when dinner was almost over). We were all so tired, that when we did get back upstairs to our room, we all crashed.
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