Of Travel and Timelessness

 

My name is Jann Segal, and I’m a travel addict. There, I said it. Writing is my twelve - step program, and thankfully, it’s not been working. I’ve given myself over to the higher power of travel and the tour companies who entice me. They constantly triumph, and I’m delighted with the outcome. But like any other addiction, mine has genetic roots.

I always knew it was my mother’s side of the family that was to blame. My mother Anita became a travel agent after I had started traveling, but the real culprit was her brother, First Lt. Edwin B. Kane, who died in Tunisia during World War Two.   Killed eight years before I was born, I obviously never got to know my late uncle. But when his affects were sent back home, included were his well-documented photos of the many places he was able to visit while on the European and African continents before the war took its toll. I looked at the photos constantly as a child, dreaming that someday I might get to visit Egypt, Libya, Africa, and Ethiopia, (the latter he documented as Abyssinia). These photos, in addition to his souvenirs which my mother eventually let me have, were absolute treasures to me.

Traveling the Middle East and Meeting the Guy with the Gun

Photos: Jann Segal

During my recent travels with Overseas Adventure Travel to the Middle East, in Egypt, Jordan and Israel, there was a been a character following me around the  trip in all three countries. It's a different person every time of course, but he has been ever present.  He helped us cross our first street in Cairo, and one gal called him what I have since... the guy with the gun.

Yes, we needed a guy with an M16 to help us cross the street in Cairo. And security escorts would turn on their sirens and push other cars aside, just so they could be our security detail. Sometimes they looked like they needed to complete high school, but they were armed. In Alexandria, the guy with the gun (and cell phone) helped connect me with the group after a group of kids just wanted to have their photos taken and I was lagging behind a bit. I think he was more interested in his phone call, but I came to expect that Egypt wouldn't be Egypt without the guy with the gun.