Day 29

Saturday 16th October
I slept in this morning as I like to do so as often as I can if I can get away with it. Up at 10am missed breakfast as I often do too. Well there is little else to do. But we are all excited as we now have confirmation that we will be leaving from Lattakia on Sunday morning. A briefing is given to everyone as to what to expect and any questions are answered as best as they could be.
Hugh, who we now call Mr Big , or Clint Eastwood, and I put stickers and banners on around 25 of the ambulances in the hot sweltering heat and it takes us most of the day. The vehicles are now looking wicked as can be. We are proud of our handiwork and stand back and admire while we compliment each other. After that we take a well deserved rest for an hour or so and have some cold drinks.
We hand in all our passports to the admin team so that all arrangements for boarding the ship in the morning can be taken care of. Amar is kind enough to go and get us some falafals, which are essentially donnor kebabs which went down just nice.
In the evening at around 8pm there is a press conference and a big public rally to give us a bib send off. Syria has been absolutely marvelous to us and we will never forget the hospitality they have given us not just on this convoy but the last convoy too.
Late this evening the big man George Galloway himself will come to join us from Lebanon.he will wave us all off as he will not be allowed to enter Egypt unfortunately. In our opinion this is a mistake for the Egyptians to decapitate the convoy in such manner but as GG said, it’s a small price to pay if all the other members and all our aid gets into Gaza.
There is still some question whether some of us who were on previous convoys will be allowed to enter Egypt, we may get deported from Al Arish and not allowed any further. But we shall see. We hope that this will not be the case.
In the morning we expect to board the ship in the afternoon and it will be a very long journey, rather uncomfortable as it is a cargo ferry and we will be sleeping on the deck, hope I don’t slide off as I cant swim. But I do have an inflatable plastic pillow which I will not let out of my sight. If that fails, I will stay close to someone who is fatter than me as I am told that fat people float. Mmm.
We hope that it will be a safe journey but we will be passing the exact co ordinates in international waters in which the Mavi Marmara was attacked by Israel. We hope this will not happen, but there is a small chance that the Israelis might board our ship. Is that happens I will once again find a fat person to hide behind. Or play dead hoping they might not notice me.
I may not be able to update this journal any further for some time if there is no internet access in the seas, or in Egyptian prisons. But I will try my best to do so when I can.
On a serious note I hope all goes well as we really don’t want any trouble this time around. For everyones sake. Enough blood has been lost on the Mavi Marmara an in previous convoys.
I wonder if we ask nicely, the Egyptians might take us for a tour of the Pyramids. I always wanted to go and see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. But I would much rather be home with my friends and family. See you soon everyone.