July 12, 2009 (2:45am Cairo)
The 100 Viva Palestina humanitarian volunteers have decided to stay the night in their buses at the Mubarak Peace Bridge over the Suez Canal despite pressure from the Egyptian security officials to return to Cairo.
The official reason given at the checkpoint for refusing to allow them to cross is that the officials there did not have a list of the names of the members of the convoy. Such a list was, however, at the request of the Egyptian authorities before any of the convoy members set foot in Egypt sent to the Egyptian ambassadors to Washington, D.C., and London.
I think just about every single one of us living together (all the people from Southern California) has been bit several times and counting as you can’t swat mosquitoes while you’re fast asleep. Alexandria is situated near many swamps so there are many more mosquitoes here than Cairo. Most of us unfortunately didn’t bring bug repellant, so that’s something to remember for next time!
