Random thoughts from the Frankfurt Airport. 11:40 AM Germany time

“I think today will be a funny day.”

The olive skinned man gave an exasperated chuckle as he checked my American passport, complete with the neatly placed visa bookmarked inside. It was a simple procedure, but his frustrated comment was understandable--already, at the gate, there had been a lot of misunderstandings and complications as Bangladeshis, Saudis, Sudanese, Egyptians, and Jordanians clustered around the German-speaking crew, here in the Frankfurt Airport.

It was so strange for me to step off the plane from Budapest--where, even at 7 A.M on my way to the airport I saw  60 year old woman walking her dog in a bikini--and join this hodge-podge group at the Khartoum-Jeddah flight, where the air smelled undeniably of  oud perfume and sweat, reminding me instantly of my Arabian home. What a difference--moments before I passed through security, I was surrounded by pictures of nearly-nude women touting vodka, and now I am one of the few woman not covering my hair. And I haven’t left Germany yet!

But the familiar sounds of Arabic warmed my heart--even if they were angry words towards the blinking German staff during a visa mix-up. As I type this, a tiny olive-skinned little girl is playing peek-a-boo with me, and her eyes went wide when I addressed her in Arabic.

I’m on my way to a new mission field--the Middle East, and more specifically, the land of Mecca, the holiest site in all of Islam (which I visited, albeit illegally, last year). I’ll be touching down in Jeddah just as the whole country is shifting in to Ramadan-mode, which is a holy month of fasting that began just a few days ago. I can’t wait. My dad, who is a practicing Sunni Muslim, requires us all to join him in the traditional observance of Ramadan, which means rising before dawn for the sahoor meal, abstaining from all food and drink until sundown, and then the partaking of iftar after the maghrib prayer. I’ll write more about Ramadan later--but I’m so excited to return to this culture that I love so, so much.

Time to switch gears...let’s go!