{"id":692,"date":"2013-05-15T15:16:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=692"},"modified":"2013-05-15T15:16:39","modified_gmt":"2013-05-15T15:16:39","slug":"after-learning-my-flight-was-detained-4-hours-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/?p=692","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
\nI heard the announcement:
\nIf anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic,
\nPlease come to the gate immediately.<\/p>\n

Well\u2014one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.
\nAn older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
\nJust like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly.
\nHelp, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her
\nProblem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she
\nDid this.<\/p>\n

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.
\nShu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick,
\nSho bit se-wee?<\/p>\n

The minute she heard any words she knew\u2014however poorly used\u2014
\nShe stopped crying.<\/p>\n

She thought our flight had been canceled entirely.
\nShe needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the
\nFollowing day. I said no, no, we\u2019re fine, you\u2019ll get there, just late,<\/p>\n

Who is picking you up? Let\u2019s call him and tell him.
\nWe called her son and I spoke with him in English.
\nI told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and
\nWould ride next to her\u2014Southwest.<\/p>\n

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.<\/p>\n

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and
\nFound out of course they had ten shared friends.<\/p>\n

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian
\nPoets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.<\/p>\n

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering
\nQuestions.<\/p>\n

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies\u2014little powdered
\nSugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts\u2014out of her bag\u2014
\nAnd was offering them to all the women at the gate.<\/p>\n

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a
\nSacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California,
\nThe lovely woman from Laredo\u2014we were all covered with the same
\nPowdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.<\/p>\n

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers\u2014
\nNon-alcoholic\u2014and the two little girls for our flight, one African
\nAmerican, one Mexican American\u2014ran around serving us all apple juice
\nAnd lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too.<\/p>\n

And I noticed my new best friend\u2014by now we were holding hands\u2014
\nHad a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing,<\/p>\n

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always
\nCarry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.<\/p>\n

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought,
\nThis is the world I want to live in. The shared world.<\/p>\n

Not a single person in this gate\u2014once the crying of confusion stopped
\n\u2014has seemed apprehensive about any other person.<\/p>\n

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too.
\nThis can still happen anywhere.<\/p>\n

Not everything is lost.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), \u201cWandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal.\u201d I think this poem may be making the rounds, this week, but that\u2019s as it should be.\u00a0<\/span> (via oliviacirce<\/a>)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, Please come to the gate immediately. Well\u2014one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, Just like my grandma wore, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblwise.cynwise.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}