When the editor in chief, Khalid Al-Maeena, asked me to cover Haj for Arab News, I accepted the challenge immediately. I had no idea what to expect. I was promised front page bylines, an appearance on CNN and BBC Radio, and a nice bonus. I didn't really think I deserved a bonus, because I was just doing my job - a relatively fun, rewarding and easy job. But it turned out that this is exactly what covering Haj was not. It was neither fun nor easy. However, I can say that it was definitely rewarding. I learned a lot about myself and about being a journalist. I learned a lot about teamwork, and about perseverance.
What was rewarding about the Haj experi-ence was meeting the deadlines and managing the stressful demands put on us by our managing editor. Several times we all felt that we wanted to quit. We were all definitely out of our element. I tip my hat to Siraj Wahab who worked from day one to produce not only the required stories, but also Haj Reflections. He pushed himself to produce and encouraged me not to give up. Hassan Adawi was our right hand man. Because of my weak Arabic, Hassan stood by me and greatly facilitated communication between the non-English speakers and myself.
The day before Haj and the first day of Haj were the easiest. The conditions were not crowded, everything was clean, we were all energized. But as the hours passed and more and more pilgrims arrived, the task at hand became increasingly challenging.
One afternoon I decided to take the motorcycle and try to locate some Iraqi pilgrims to interview. I couldn't find any anywhere. I was riding around asking boy scouts and policemen where the Iraqis were. They must have thought I was crazy, because they all gave me strange looks or ignored me.
After two hours without success, I decided to return to the media tent. Now the problem was that all the tents looked the same. I tried to call Siraj and Hassan for directions, but the network was busy. I was lost, thirsty, sunburned and frustrated. By the time I found our tent three hours later, I was ready to pack up my things and quit journalism. Those three hours on the motorcycle dodging pilgrims and emergency vehicles in the sun really took a lot out of me. But then, I kept thinking that I am 30, in pretty good shape and have a nice air conditioned tent to go back to. How about those pilgrims who were sleeping on the hot concrete without any of the comforts bestowed upon me such as a refrigerator and a person to bring tea and food whenever I asked for it? I really did not have anything to complain about. So I decided to stop moaning to myself.
The next day was the Standing at Arafat. As soon as Hassan, Siraj and I arrived, we got separated. I was in the middle of a group of close to two million people, on the back of a motorcycle, getting even more sunburned than the day before, trying to find out where the media tent was. After an hour of beeping at pilgrims and dodging emergency vehicles, I decided to abandon the moped. To be honest, I didn't really care if I ever saw it again. It brought me more agony than it did help.
I made my way over to the Ministry of Information to beg them to let me use their phone. They wouldn't let me in. There is no cellular coverage at Arafat. So, I did something that I normally wouldn't do. I went around the side and jumped over the fence into the Ministry of Information. Once inside I was shown the media communications center made available to all foreign media organizations such as CNN, ITN and FTV. I squeezed myself in between CNN and ITN and bullied my way to a fax machine. From there I called Khalid Al-Maeena on his mobile, and he sorted everything out. It took another two hours to walk the half a kilometer to Siraj and Hassan.
Arab News Features 14 February 2003
