April 02-03, 2011 Saturday/Sunday
We were not able to leave at 10:00 PM last night because the bus which picked us up did not arrive on time. We left at 12:30 AM, April 02. Our flight in Tunis was supposed to be at 7:00 AM so we were anxious if we could meet the said schedule considering that the bus ride was for eight hours. We arrived at the Tunis Airport at 8:00 AM and were met by a representative of the UN's Organization for International Migrants (OIM). He gave us a form to fill up and rushed us to our plane (which arrived late that's why we made it on time). The plane took off at 8:30 AM for a five-hour ride to Istanbul, Turkey. In Istanbul, another OIM staff met us, documented our arrival and provided us with snacks. He also accompanied us to the departure area. We took a Turkish Airline for our flight to Bangkok, Thailand.
After a nine-hour ride, we arrived at the Bangkok International Airport where we waited for three hours before our flight to Manila. The OIM staff who met us was Kim, a Thai, who was the kindest and most accommodating among all the OIM reps we met. He even assisted Ofel, a nurse who worked in Tripoli, whose medical scissors was confiscated by airport security. Ofel was teary-eyed as she explained to Kim that she had those scissors for 17 years already, since the time she started working in Libya. Through Kim's intercession, the airport authorities made a compromise to send the scissors to Ofel's Philippine address but she had to shoulder the postage fee herself.
The last leg of our journey was the four-hour ride from Bangkok to Manila. Finally, on April 03, the PAL plane which brought us out from Thailand touched down on Philippine soil at 6:50 PM. At long last, I am home sweet home with my family... safe, sound, and sane. Alhamdulilah! Thank God.
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