EDITOR’S NOTE: InsideVero Contributing Editor, Milt Thomas, is traveling in the Middle East, and will be corresponding with our readers as he journeys to Egypt to the United Arib Emirates.

BY MILT THOMAS

NEW YORK CITY (JFK Airport) – Right now I am sitting in the shopping level of JFK international terminal amid the hustle and bustle of travelers and the uncompromising, careless noise of construction workers. Yes, JFK is undergoing another restructuring, new businesses rising out of the debris of failed ones, travelers inconvenienced, sitting in corners and empty spaces, wherever they can find a place to sit while they wait for flights. I fell a little guilty taking a small tea table and chair that could be used by people wandering around, looking for a place to sit and eat their high priced, fast food meal.  McDonald’s never tasted so expensive as a Big Mac in construction land. I think everyone needs to get away from our comfortable lives in quiet Vero Beach once in a while to see how the other half lives.

I flew Jet Blue from Orlando to JFK this morning, a packed plane, ever seat taken by all these strangers breathing the same limited air supply. I hear a sneeze two rows in front, a cough right behind me and wonder how I will escape this flying tomb in good health. I normally travel light, but this time had to carry two overloaded suitcases for my friend Hamdy. The extra luggage is filled with clothing donated by his American friends for the poor kids in his native Egyptian village of Kafr el Arbain, although it feels like he is actually in one of these suitcases himself.

I have traveled with Hamdy to Egypt almost every year since 1992 when I first went there with him as my tour guide. Oops, someone behind me just sneezed in my cramped alcove sheltered from the hammers and buzz saws of the construction workers. Hamdy is a trained archeologist who came to this country almost 30 years ago. He found there wasn’t much demand for archeologists here since our country is only a few hundred years old instead of the 6000 years of his native Egypt.  I have traveled all over Africa and the Middle East since 1992, always to a new country, and then on to spend time in Hamdy’s village in Egypt before returning home to Vero Beach. This trip I am going to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE after dropping off these two heavy suitcases in Kafr El Arbain. By the way, I paid an extra $122 to check these bags on a flight that didn’t cost much more than that for my seat.

When I arrived at JFK I decided it would be faster to walk to the international terminal than take the normal circuitous route out to the train and back into the other terminal pushing a cart with three suitcases, only one of which is mine. Of course, it was the coldest day of the year, temperature near zero with an icy wind blowing in my face, slowing me down. At least it was sunny and not snowing or careening over sheets of ice.  I walked with another man, he from Guyana and a muslim. He told me his dream was to go to Egypt because of the history there, both muslim and ancient. I stood in line at the EgyptAir counter, the only American among a crowd of Egyptians either going home from visiting their family in the US or visiting their family in Egypt.

My last trip was a year ago November, around the time that Mubarak resigned as president when untold numbers of people gathered in historic Tahrir Square to protest his dictatorship. My gripe with the media is that all news out of Egypt was centered on Tahrir Square and not on just about everywhere else in the country where people lived their normal everyday lives. Egypt has been a dictatorship for just about all of its 6,000 years, the dictator being pharaohs for 3000 of those years. In that time the Egyptian people have been subjugated at one time or another by just about every military powerhouse of the day, from Hyksos to Romans to the French and British.  But that never stopped the everyday Egyptian from a daily life of earning a living to feed the family and work for a better life for their children.

Anyway, after the man from Guyana and the Egyptians waiting to heck in at EgyptAir, I paid for my lunch to an Indian cashier. I could tell by her first name she was Hindu and not muslim, so we talked about different names. Then I sat down and a Hispanic family sat next to me on one side and a Chinese woman talking on her cellphone in Chinese but speaking loud enough to be heard over the background construction noise. I have to say, it is a bit exciting to be around people from all these countries, either working at the airport or traveling, but living their simple everyday lives just like us.

I have often been asked if it is safe to travel to the places where I choose to journey. My answer is always the same – I’m only in New York for four or five hours, so no problem. The fact is, I have never had a problem traveling, which I don’t consider particularly significant if you approach it like I do. We actually have more in common with all these different peoples than our differences. When I meet someone new in a new country I ask if they have a family, how old are their children do you have any photos? It’s amazing how any conversation after that is only positive.

Well, it’s time to go through security and walk to my gate. I left my house at 6:45 this morning and the flight to Egypt is scheduled to leave at 6:30 p.m. It’s 9.5 hours to Cairo via the northern route over Iceland and with the difference in time zones, I will arrive around noon tomorrow. My contact at the airport is Ashraf, whose boss is married to a cousin of Hamdy. The adventure begins.