June 1, 2007, Kennedy International Airport
Our minds are set on the journey ahead. All we can think of is Kenya– and Dubai, our second stop. We look for the Emirates airplanes from the airport train. My mind is so focused on what we’re going to see and do that it comes to me only slowly that I am closer to home here in this airport: two hours in the car would have me at my parents’ doorstep; an hour and I’m at my uncle’s house.
Boarding the plane brings with it return to our present reality: we are traveling to the Middle East. The stewardesses on the airplane wear small red hats from which hang soft white scarves taht they have draped around their shoulders. The population of the airplane is comprised almost entirely of what appear to be people from South Asia and the Middle East. The music playing softly on the airplane as we board has the minor key of something that might have been composed in Turkey; the navy, tan and red color scheme of most western airlines is replaced here by peach and lavender. The air is redolent of body odor.
It isn’t until the airplane begins to taxi that I realize again I am still at home. Green reeds blow against blue water outside the window. And when the plane lifts off, the grid and grit of Queens opens out beneath us. Then we are higher, and Long Island’s broad and familiar green stretches out just briefly. We fly over Long Island Sound, then on to New England and east.
