Past the checkpoint

23.01.2011

When writing this, we've been in the refugee camps in the Sahara desert for about 48 hours. Not long by any standards, but the amount of new impressions don't match the time spent here. Although all three of us, Bjørnar, Marius and Elisabeth, have talked to Saharawis and former participants of the project who have been to the desert, it's been hard to imagine what to expect. We'll try to sum up our impressions to hopefully give you a better idea of our lives in the camps so far.

So far, the trip can be summed up as follows:
A bumpy start! The airport express train from Oslo was cancelled due to technical problems, which is not what you want when trying to catch a plane to another continent. Then it turned out the plane from Oslo to Paris was delayed, meaning that we had 15 mins in transit in Paris. Needless to say, we ran. It's not every day one can say that one has missed a plane, and then de-missed it again, but that's what happened. However, our luggage got stuck in Paris. Bye bye, toothbrush!

Arriving in Africa. We had a good few hours to wait in Alger, and decided to celebrate Bjørnar, who turned 20 years old that day. We had planned for a meal at the airport, but realised when we got there that the lack of cash machines would prove a problem. Luckily for us, an acquaintance we'd made at the lost-luggage counter took pity on us and lent us some money. Thus, the celebration was back on track with tuna-mushroom-cheese(?) pizzas.

Checkpoints of various kinds. In short; we've lost count of the amount of security controls, forms to be filled out and passports closely examined by people in uniforms. Algerian police enjoy putting up security checkpoints clearly only to cause inconvenience as nobody never tries to actually search you. The highlight was without doubt the hand luggage check on the tarmac of Algers International airport, in complete darkness. Thus, not a chance in a million to spot, well, anything really. However, after the last Algerian checkpoint between Tindouf and the camps, no one has asked to see any papers, and the trip onwards went smoothly, thanks to our friendly and competent contact, Abba, with his rather sturdy jeep.

The camps. The three of us are staying together in one family. Thus; we've got ourselves a new sister, brother in law and mother. Our sister speaks a little bit of English (sight of relief from those of us who don't speak Spanish or Arabic), so it is possible to talk with her. With the others, we use a mix of sign language, Spanish, French, Norwegian, English and Arabic. Confusing? Not at all. Hopefully, our Hassania (the dialect of Arabic spoken by the Saharawis) will pick up and we will be able to communicate more. Anyway, the family is great, and so far, all is well. The atmosphere has been easy and relaxed ever since the first moment making the stay so far more than pleasant.

We have been making bets on who will get ill first though....

(Curious fact of the day; the Saharawis drink a lot of tea with a lot of sugar. We had 14 cups yesterday. Beat that.)