So once again I go to the last station where there was some action and ask what is going on. By this time, the crowds are gone and the young guy who'd told me in the first place to go to B3 disengages himself and sits down next to where I'm waiting for whatever is supposed to be happening at that one cool window (and here I mean temperature). It's hot out, so at least it is cool here and has some vacant seats. Now the sweet ending to this story is that the guy calls over someone who has more English, and is able to call my contact person from the tour agency; and Mr. Mansour says he will send someone to get me. I try to explain where he should go, but he gives the impression that he knows. I sit with this young guy, and notice he is wearing a hearing device. I never got his name, but when I asked about the regularity of the chaos he explains a bit about his day.
Then I ask if he speaks any other languages and he indicates his hearing aid and said, he cannot. One ear is completely deaf and the other has the aid. We talk about his family, who live in Makkah and he tells me he's made hajj four times. Meanwhile, periodically, he opens his hand out of his pocket and passes me a few pumpkin seeds. There is something very redeeming about these seeds. One, I really do like pumpkin seeds, and two, here is a male Saudi offering them to an unknown Muslim woman. It all seems so natural and yet so odd in a lovely way after battling crowds in the other pavilions. Here is the one I held accountable for the loss of my self-sufficiency; but he didn't hold my frustrations against me.
Eventually I do get with the contact person, and I join the tour group. By that time, I have been reminded of the generosity of humankind, so I am prepared for at least the minimum of patience that will be needed as we continue our long stay at the airport before boarding buses to the hotel in Makkah. But for me, I've already been some places where managing the stipulations without the semblance of order and orderliness is the norm. Here you must have this stamp, you must go to window B3 to pay a check.
December 2, 2010—Visiting the Kingdom is Not the Same as Visiting the King
The Kingdom is not the King. Some things are required or experienced because of the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia. This is not the same as preparing to meet the King. The king is my metaphor for the preparation for the hajj, or maybe even the hajj itself. It should also not to be mistaken here for the name of Allah, al-Malik, the King.
Okay, so our entry into Saudi Arabia for the hajj was not all that seamless. But everyone says this is the beginning of what one has to do in order to do the hajj. So it is still part of the process. It took us from arrival time at around 7 p.m. until nearly midnight to get out of the airport. For the tour company, it is most cost efficient to take a full busload of people, so these are the steps:
Once I was in touch with our Jeddah contact person, I was taken to the cafeteria area to join our "group". Then I was given a meal with half a pound of rice and half a chicken. (Try to keep count how many times food offerings will be made this evening, okay?). From that point forward, my brain or my wits were no longer on demand. So I let somebody else took care of everything, in their own way, but hey, it's hajj.
We left the cafeteria area as a "group." "Follow me," Mr. Mansour said. Our next stop was to a more general baggage area, because at least half of them did not know where their bags were. The rest of us, well, we just waited. I finally dozed off until the next "Follow me" round. This was only to point out our bags, in addition to the newly retrieved ones. All of them were piled on a huge cart that was pulled to the next "follow me" destination. About midway we are divided into a men's "follow me" line and a women's "follow me" line. The women's line was allowed to load the bus first. No, we were not sent to the back, in case you're wondering; so personally, I'm not sure this was entirely necessary. Most women sat in a row alone until their husband boarded and joined them in the same row.
I already knew from my friend from Saudi, that the normal drive from Jeddah to Makkah is one hour. It was 1:10 a.m. So in my head, I start calculating the possibility of going straight to the Kaabah to perform my umrah. I figured if I got started, then I might be done by fajr salah. Then I could sleep and be ihram-free. Mr. Mansour said that fajr was at 5:10 a.m. He also said we would be required to make one check point stop, where we would "pick" our mu'allim. Well, I guess he meant have one picked for us, because nobody on the bus had any input on this point. This stop lasted maybe 40 minutes and fortunately, some of us also used it as a restroom stop. They passed us another boxed meal this time, with our first zam- zam water.
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