Mile 31: Abdullah

A young man named Abdullah Elshamy, a foreign student from Egypt, regularly attends Writing Center Hours in the afternoons. He comes in with his class papers and diligently listens to me explain how he can improve on his ideas and his writing. He has come several times and by sheer luck, gotten me as his tutor every time. We greet each other in the hallways and at dinner and he seems to be a very well liked student on the ship.

Sadly, in Dublin, he left the voyage. In France, Abdullah put his bag on the top rack of a train while traveling from Paris to Le Havre. A little while later, he realized the bag was gone. In it, he had all of his money, credit cards and most importantly, his passport. We all know on the ship that our passport is our lifeline. The purser requires all of us to return passports after each port and avoids giving them to us so that they may be kept safe. Since Abdullah was traveling to Geneva, he had to have his passport with him. And, on the train, he lost it. He and his friends looked for it up and down the train (since it had not made any stops yet) but the thief was savvy enough to hide the bag.

Several days later, after many attempts to get another one, he was told that the Egyptian consulate would take 6 weeks to replace the passport. Since he cannot be without his passport for so long on this voyage, he had to permanently leave the ship.

The whole shipboard community came together and threw him a goodbye party. He was smiling with friends and taking tons of pictures. Everyone signed his world map and the crew made him a cake. He came and found me in the crowd and hugged me. I told him I was proud of his attitude. This young man then gave a wonderful speech to the whole community (the Union was filled with more than 400 students) where he spoke about following one’s passions in life and letting events take their course. He spoke about being a proud and practicing Muslim and the gift of so many new friends. He spoke as a wise man who had realized the true gifts he had been given – opportunity and memory. What an inspiration he was to all who knew him. The students took a group photo with him (he is in the center with the red/pink shirt) and we all tried very hard not to cry (I failed on that one).

I’m very proud of Abdullah and his accomplishments on the ship and in life. He will return to Egypt and hopefully take a few classes at his home university if they allow him to start a bit late. He will perhaps get the opportunity to sail on another voyage soon (ISE is trying to help him there) but more than anything, he will always put a smile on our faces. We miss you Abdullah!