another day of travel, another strip search...

i am writing, so obviously i made it in. after 27 hours of travel and 4 more of isreali security. so i left cincinnatti 40 minutes late and arrived in paris 10 minutes before the plane was going to leave, but they decided that i could not get on the plane, so 8 more hours wait in the paris airport. damn. then i get on the plane to tel aviv, everything is ok. when i arrive at 12 am in tel aviv, there is a lady standing outside the plane with my name on a piece of paper, and i tell her that is me, and she says, your luggage is in lost and found. weird, right? i mean, did my luggage come on the previous flight? i dont know. so i go through immigration and of course i get pulled aside. at first just to a room with some other folks who got pulled aside, a hippy, two arabs who wanted to visit family in jerusalem, and an ethiopian woman. then four or five people can in very quickly and in succession and asked me about my trip and so forth. then they took me to a weird room. it was strange because it was a door in a wall that didnt look like a door that opened seemingly from nothing into a big white room. and then ten people were in the room and the interrogation began. lots of big guys cracking their knuckles came into the room. and i got strip searched while two hugs security men watched. just to make sure, i guess. lots of questions, lots of questions. after four hours i guess they decided it was ok for me to enter the country. when i finally got my passport back i went to the lost and found where they said my bag was, and then they told me it wasnt there. hmm.... all of the supplies and my clothes and everything. not there. i mean, when i got off the plane it was supposedly in the lost and found. i.e. it was THERE and someone FOUND it. now they tell me that it never left paris. how they knew this when i landed i am not sure. but i currently have no luggage, no clothes, no needles, no herbs, no nothing, except for my contact lenses and a toothbrush. i guess it could be worse - they might not have let me in. so i am going to have to figure out a plan b pretty soon. i am staying with two good people - they are very nice and accomodating. even offering to take me shopping and get new clothes. and this morning when i went looking for internet before they woke up i stumbled upon the beach. the ocean. and i couldnt help but remember the stories that i heard when i was in tulkarem last time of so many people who lived there who said that from on the high hill they could see the beach over the wall that was being built. and how they dreamed of one day going to the beach. a beach that they could see but never reach. and here i am. a little perspective for my frustration, i suppose. anyway, i am determined to get to the contacts that i have made with or without the needles. but for now i will wait for a day or two here in tel aviv since everything is closed anyway and wait. thats it for now, more to come soon. peace