My Encounter with America
Part 8: Traveling light caused me problems at the airport
By Zadok Ekimwere
zomwere@hotmail.com

Zadok Ekimwere

I have now visited America three times. But I don't know whether it is by design or by some divine act that my visits happen roughly every decade. As readers of this column will recall, I first came to the U.S. in 1980 and was mesmerized by everything I saw. My second visit was in 1991 after the Gulf War.

I was among 23 international journalists invited for an advanced summer media seminar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts. The theme of the seminar was American foreign policy in a unipolar world. The participants were either carefully or deliberately selected from the Middle East, Africa, and South America.

Naturally, I was very excited to get another opportunity to visit the great country I admire so much. Since it was summer, I did not have to bother with warm clothing, and I did not want to carry my faded clothes to the U.S. In any case, my plan was to buy myself and family new clothes in America. So I just traveled light - a few shirts and a jacket in my light traveling bag, which I carried as hand luggage.

At Heathrow Airport, London, by sheer luck I met fellow participants to the seminar from Oman, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia who were also booked in the same flight with me. When we reached New York airport, I was just sailing through immigration with my traveling bag strapped on my shoulders, because I did not have luggage to claim or big boxes to be searched.

But light traveling landed me into problems. After checking my passport and visa, the immigration officer asked me where my luggage was. I told him I only had the traveling bag. This jolted the officer and he became suspicious. He asked me to step aside and started questioning me afresh. He asked me many security questions.

I became desperate and hopeless. My enthusiasm for the seminar melted into thin air. I even psychologically prepared myself for imprisonment or deportation to Uganda. But by some stroke of luck, a superior officer came around. I told him I was going for a seminar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. He was so happy he quickly asked his colleague to clear me because he was an alumnus of Tufts University.

The next problem was faced by my friend from Syria. He had a bit of difficulty speaking English. In his luggage he carried a very sophisticated and fanciful body spray. When he was asked what it was, he thought he should just demonstrate what it was by spraying it on himself. This sent all immigration and security personnel diving for cover. They thought the Syrian was a suicide bomber. I intervened and explained that it was a body spray before he was free to go.

During the seminar we predicted there would be a rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East because of lack of a constructive U.S. foreign policy in the region in addition to the unresolved Palestinian issue. I don't know whether readers can agree with our prediction taking into account what is happening in that region today.

What amazed me most this time was how the size of American limousines had changed dramatically from the large, king- size to the small sleek Japanese- size. This time I spent my money very carefully.

(Next week: Travel ordeals still haunt me.)