I left Cape Town on 20th January 2011 for a business trip to Egypt.
I had looked forward to this trip for some time, and although there would not be much time for sightseeing, I was determined to fit in a trip to the pyramids and the Egyptian Museum.
I stayed at the Sofitel El Gezirah hotel in Cairo, which is on the southern tip of an island in the Nile. From my room on the 15th floor I had an amazing view of the two bridges across the river, and the road that runs across the island to Tahrir Square and the Egyptian museum.
Cairo is an amazing mixture of sights, sounds, smells, traffic chaos and surprisingly, kindness. There are few traffic lights, no stop streets or pedestrian crossings, and where there is a two lane road, there will be at least three lines of vehicles.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets on the morning of 25 January
One day while driving through the city I saw an old man with a walking stick trying to cross the busy street. He slipped and fell backwards. The driver of my taxi and the one in front of mine both stopped and helped the old man to his feet and across the road. When we resumed our journey I noticed in the rear view mirror that the driver was crying. As I put my hand on his shoulder, he said to me, One day I will be old as well and I hope somebody will help me too. I wondered if I would have stopped in a similar situation.
DEMONSTRATIONS BEGIN
I was soon to witness a different kind of chaos. Thousands of protesters took to the streets on the morning of 25 January. It seemed I would have to be content with a view of the pyramids from a distance, and the museum was definitely out of the question.
Little did I realise that the demonstration on 28 January (Friday) would begin a chain of events that would require much prayer and intervention from God for me to be able to leave and return home.
Just after lunch on that day, I returned to my room and heard what sounded like fire crackers. From the balcony I saw that it was security police firing rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons at thousands of demonstrators.
Thus began a series of frantic telephone calls to and from home, to and from the office, and the decision to not stay in Egypt until the 2nd of February, but to return home as soon as I could get an earlier flight.
My flight was moved up to the Sunday evening but by Saturday morning we realised that the situation was becoming more serious by the minute. The hotel was in curfew lock down in the evenings to keep the guests safe, the cell phone and internet networks were down and the only means of contact was via landline.
Back home my wife Juanita asked everyone via Facebook and SMS to pray, and began searching for an earlier flight. She was told that there were no other flights available. Friends and family at home and overseas searched for flights, but there was nothing.
Then Juanita, prompted I believe by the Holy Spirit, phoned the original travel agent, and requested that she find any flight to any destination, regardless of cost, as soon as possible. The hotel requested guests to stay in the rooms as much as possible, so Saturday was a day filled with stress, prayer and patrolling the balcony to keep track with what was happening around me. Evening came and still no flight.
On Sunday morning I decided that although my booked flight was only at midnight, I would leave the hotel early to miss the demonstrators and go to the airport to wait. On the way there I saw many burnt out security vehicles, cars, trucks and even an armoured tank. I also passed many tanks on their way into Cairo.
At the airport there were hundreds of people milling around, and I later learned that many of them had already been there for a few days. Luckily I was advised to take bottled water with me as there was no food or water available at the airport.
When I finally fought my way through the crowds to the airline I was booked on, I was told that all flights had been cancelled.
Juanita began her round of calling the travel agent, the local airport, the airline and the company I work for. Thankfully the cell phone network in Cairo was up and running again on Sunday morning. Another answer to prayer was the travel agent phoning at midday to say that she had managed to get a booking on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey. The flight was to leave Cairo at 14h00. I had to then move to another queue to begin the process all over again.
A HAND WRITTEN BOARDING PASS!
The distressing thing was that the ticket agent was telling people that they would only accept persons with printed E-tickets. All I had was a piece of paper with an E-ticket number and my details written on it, that Juanita gave me over the cell phone. The next 6 people in front of me, even though they had e-tickets were shown away, one after the other, and were being told that the flight was over booked. As I got to the front, another amazing thing happened. The computer system went down. The agent asked for my e-ticket and I handed in my piece of paper. After looking me up and down I was given a hand written boarding pass.
Normal procedure would have been, if the computer system was up, to check if I was a preferred customer (I wasnt), or if I was booked first class (I wasnt), and then they would have shown me away as well. It was now already 14h00 and I ran to get on board. Miraculously the plane was delayed on the ground giving me time to get on board. Eventually the flight departed at 17h00 to Istanbul and the relief was tangible in the air.
Juanita kept people up to date on Facebook and began thanksgiving prayers. I thanked our Father for all his interventions. I also would like to thank all my church family for their prayers for my safety, as well as the moral support Juanita received during this trying time in our lives.
I learnt many lessons, but one of them is that God cares even about the smallest details of our lives.