Mrs. Gisela Haggan
Ein Reisebericht
c/o CPL s Club
R.A.F. El Adem
Warrington/ Lanes, England
B.F.P.O. 56, El Adem
26.6.1958
We have just returned our house to the R.A.F., everything is fine (of course), the last signatures have been made and now we are all, that is me, Achim, Manfred and Alec and Margarete here in front of the door and waiting for the car that is to take us to the train station, as the beginning of the big journey. At 1/2 12 noon the car arrives, we load 4 children, 4 suitcases and 4 bags, and off we go to Warrington station, where the R.A.F. station service welcomes us and puts us on the train to London. The train goes quite slowly and the journey is not very interesting, but we have a lot to eat and books to read, and every now and then we look out of the window and say goodbye in our minds to meadows and fields and cows and horses, which we probably won't see again so soon.
After 4 hours the train finally stops in London, a nice porter loads all 4 children, suitcases and bags on a small trolley and takes us to the R.A.F. collection point, where we leave our luggage, fill out a form and then have another hour. We quickly go for coffee and cake and still have time for a little stroll through London. (which doesn't happen every day). At 6 o'clock in the afternoon we sit in the bus that takes us to Hendon airfield, It has started to rain, but even in the rain it is fun to drive through London. There are only seven of us, three of them without children, about 100 meters behind us follows another bus with R.A.F. soldiers who are supposed to fly back to Africa from vacation. After an hour we arrive in Hendon. Now it's time for the big journey.
Our passports and other papers are checked, and in the end we are all served tea and sandwiches and loaded back into a bus. It is pouring rain, but in the meantime it has become dark and with all the lights on London still looks very beautiful. This time we drive for almost two hours, the children get tired, but the two big ones are still terribly excited and can't sit still at all, Our final destination in England is the Gatwick airfield. It is already after 10 o'clock in the evening, but before we get to see an airplane, quite a while passes. Gatwick looks beautiful at night, like in the movie with all the lights, and everything here is very modern. Again, papers are checked, luggage and children and I myself are weighed. The large luggage is already brought to the plane, while we are led to a dining room for a great meal.
In the meantime, we are all quite excited and can't eat much of all the wonderful things that are offered to us here. (All at the expense of the R.A.F.) I have been assigned two non-commissioned officers to help me with the children. I am quite glad, because Achim and Mannie have to carry bags, and the two little ones are so tired that they can be carried by my two helpers without further ado. So now it really starts. Another bus takes us out onto the airfield close to our plane, a Viscount. We go up the long stairs to the cabins, at the top there is a friendly stewardess who shows us our seats and then we actually sit in the plane.
I have a row of 5 seats, Alec and Mannie sit on one side of the aisle, and I sit with the rest of the family on the other. We are strapped in for the ascent, the engines are already humming, but in here it doesn't sound so loud, the stewardess gives us some instructions, the pilot greets us through the loudspeaker, then there is a gentle jerk, and the plane starts to roll. For minutes we roll along the runway like a bus, faster and faster, and finally the plane lifts off the ground. For a moment we have a strange feeling in our ears, but that is quickly forgotten because we are too busy looking out of the window, where the lights from the airfield are getting smaller and smaller and finally disappear completely.
The stewardess passes around cigarettes and drinks, then it gets quiet on the plane, the children are asleep and so are many other passengers, and I don't think flying is that interesting. At 2 a.m. we land in Nice, southern France. It is wonderfully warm here, we have to get out and wait in the large reception hall until the plane has refueled. Everything here is very French, the women so elegant, most people here speak French, and I get a cup of coffee, which is the French of all. My two non-commissioned officers carry Alec and Margarete back into the plane and shortly afterwards we are all high up and fly on. It is still dark, the children are still asleep a bit, but somehow time passes and shortly before 4 o'clock a wonderful breakfast is served, to our great surprise. We pull back the curtains.
Somewhere the sun has risen and very quickly I have to change my mind, flying is wonderful. It is indescribably beautiful here high above the clouds, the sun colors everything red and golden, a few clouds remain white and the sky above us is wonderfully blue. Shortly after breakfast we are supposed to land in Malta. The plane goes lower and lower, we "dive" through the clouds and can now see the Mediterranean Sea below us. We fly deeper and deeper, and then a tiny island dives into the big water in Malta. The closer we get, the bigger the island becomes. The children think we are flying over the Toy Land, the houses and palm trees are so small, and the fields are all surrounded by walls.
The enthusiasm grows and when the toy cars and people move properly, the cheering knows no bounds. We land in Malta and see a piece of "south" up close. Lots of sand, a few palm trees and some strange flat white buildings, this is the Malta airfield. Again we have to get out again, it is about 1/2 4 o'clock in the morning after our time, but unfortunately the sun is already shining very hot and now we also notice how tired we are. In a waiting hall cooled by electric fans, we drink orange juice and write a few postcards. Shortly afterwards we board our "Viscount" again, this time to Idris in North Africa. It's getting warmer and warmer, but there are big fans in the plane, and it's quite bearable. The flight time is again about two hours. The children have waved "goodbye" to their toyland, and for the next 1 1/2 hours we can only see clouds, sunshine and wonderful blue skies. Towards the end of the two hours, the pilot draws our attention to the fact that the African coast will come into view in a few minutes. At first we only see water, but even that is a beautiful sight in the wonderful sunshine. Then suddenly the coast appears, at first we see only yellow land against blue sea, and the deeper we go, the more details we can see. For the third time our plane lands, we are in Africa, Idris in Libya!
When the plane finally stops and the cabin door is opened, breathtakingly hot air hits us, Africa! Tired and sweaty, we get out and look around the Idris airfield. Palm trees and green flowering bushes, yellow sand and white buildings, British soldiers in tropical uniforms and dark-skinned men in civilian clothes, and above all a heat like we have never experienced before. With children and luggage, we go to a reception hall, where papers have to be filled out for so many times. Instead of getting on another plane, we are loaded onto a bus where it is so hot that Mannie gets sick.- An R.A.F. officer joins us on the bus and announces that we are to be accommodated in Idris for at least a week, because no other plane leaves for El Aden until then. This gives us a real shock, we had thought that in a few hours we would be in Al Adem and thus with us men and "home".
But it's so hot and we're so tired that we all just sit there and let the man talk. The bus takes us first to the officers' mess, where we get tea and cake and then to our quarters, Here I wake up a bit from my apathy, it's so beautiful here. We live in a typical Arab building, a windowless wall around the outside, and inside around the square courtyard a colonnade from which doors lead to our rooms. In the courtyard there are palm trees and strange plants with beautiful flowers. In the meantime, the heat has become too much even for me, with the last of my strength I put the children to bed, and then I lie on my bed and think about why I came to such a terribly hot country in the first place, where you have to sweat so much and you feel sick all the time!
The children are asleep, only Mannie is all sick and vomits every few minutes, finally I have to send an Arabic order to the doctor, and after Mannie has drunk half the bottle of medicine at once, he finally falls asleep. After a while we can wash and bathe the children and then it has finally become a little cooler. We are satisfied with our fate again and all go to dinner together in the officers' mess. The way there is beautiful, palm trees and so many other plants grow everywhere, the buildings here look so oriental, again we feel like in a movie. Fortunately, the food is not oriental at all, but very English and good and plentiful as well.
For two days we have a lazy, comfortable life here. We are treated like princesses, all we have to do is sleep and eat, bathe children and wash a few things, which the Arab servants are supposed to do, but I don't really trust them, certainly they don't wash well enough and it would be a shame for all the beautiful things for which we had saved so much in England. The children like it here, but they have nothing to do, and we haven't gotten used to the heat yet,
28.6.1958
On Saturday afternoon, an officer comes from door to door and announces that a plane is to be brought from El Aden especially for us on Sunday and that we don't have to wait until next week. We are supposed to start at 1o o'clock in the morning, but three or four times the gentlemen change their minds about the departure time and Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock we are still here.
29.6.1958
I have just climbed into the bathtub - the children are sleeping - there it starts; In ten minutes the bus leaves for the tarmac, the plane arrives in a few minutes and has to fly on immediately! Horrible excitement everywhere, even today I don't know how I got out of the tub and into my clothes, in any case the whole company had to wait a little until I had finished all the children. Nevertheless, we still got to the plane in time. This time we fly in a Comet, one of the best R.A.F. transport aircraft with jet engines. We fly 42000 feet high, it is simply wonderful! Below us again the blue water and every now and then we can see a piece of yellow desert. 350 km to El Adem and because we fly so high, the plane starts to go lower after only 250 km, and the whole thing takes less than an hour, that's how fast a "Comet" is! The pilot announces that we will land in a few minutes, and as if on cue, lipsticks and powder boxes appear everywhere, so that we are all pretty enough when we see our men again! Finally the plane stops at the El Adem airfield, again we get on a bus that takes us from the tarmac to the reception hall El Adem. There are all our men with expectant faces. The children can't get out of the bus and to their dad fast enough. It is a very happy reunion after a year of separation. A few minutes later, we all sit together in a large dining room and eat and tell and tell and eat and tell again until finally all our luggage is brought off the plane. Men, women and children and luggage are loaded into a bus, and the last part of our big journey begins, 18 km from El Adem to Tobruk.
It's already 7 o'clock in the evening when the bus finally leaves, and it's getting pleasantly cool. A good asphalt road leads through the middle of the desert, and when the buildings of El Adem have disappeared behind us, this road and a few telegraph poles and wires are the only things we can see except yellow desert sand. But it doesn't take long and the ride becomes more interesting, first we see a few bright yellow desert dogs, then even real camels in the desert!
Every now and then we meet an Arabian donkey driver, completely wrapped in their white burnus. What looks like a pile of stones with a few pieces of metal from a distance turns out to be an Arab "house". Here we see for the first time an Arab woman, dressed entirely in colorful cloths and her face veiled, as we get closer, she pulls her cloths even tighter around her face and turns her head away, no one is allowed to see the face of an Arab woman. The closer we get to Tobruk, the more "houses" there are along the way and on small hills a little away from the road. It is hard to believe that people live in these half-ruined, horribly dirty huts. On a larger hill stands a large marble monument: the tomb of the German soldiers who died near Tobruk.
Now we can see Tobruk from afar, it is located on a hill on the bay of Tobruk and offers a beautiful sight in the evening sun, white and yellow houses, blue water, yellow sand and a few green trees. The bus now drives slower and we can admire the strange buildings very closely, and as we drive through the city, we also see the people. There are some white men in tropical uniforms or light, light civilian clothes, and many, many Arabs in their strange robes, and also some Negroes, mostly in rags. The houses here have only a few windows, all the light comes from the courtyards around which each house is built. We have arrived at the house of the first English family, one family after the other gets off, and finally the bus stops in front of our house, we are there!
A travelogue. 2. Continuation
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A new apartment is always something exciting, and actually we should be a bit used to excitement by now, after all, we have moved quite often in the last few years, but a "home" here in Africa is something different and a good reason to be excited. I was as happy as a child at Christmas when Bob unlocked our front door and we entered our new home. All our luggage has been piled up behind us in the hallway and now I'm going to show you around the house, just as we walked for the first time.
What we immediately notice are the strangely patterned tiles with which the whole house is laid out and the very high walls, each room is almost twice as high as a normal room, so our house is always nice and cool. So first we walk through a long hallway with many doors. It's wonderful to open one door at a time and see what kind of room is behind it. First there is our large bedroom, opposite the bedroom for the boys, a little further the large living room and at the end of the corridor a bedroom for the two little ones. End of the corridor is too much to say, the hallway goes around the corner at right angles. Here a door leads into a huge dining room, opposite is the kitchen and then the corridor is really over, the last door is to the bathroom, from there another door goes to the toilet. All rooms are very well furnished with English furniture of course.
Our living room is very pretty with deep armchairs, sofa, fireplace, carpet and electric fans. Later we painted the fireplace reddish-brown and painted it with beige bricks, now it looks like an old German stove! Here in the living room we find a lot of packages and boxes, which I have to unpack all right away. One gift after the other comes to light, the children can't get out of their amazement. There are two black elephants carved from ebony with ivory teeth to place on the fireplace, then two ivory figures: one is an old Indian fisherman, the other an Indian farmer, both beautifully crafted. Then I unpack a small black music chest, painted all over with colorful Japanese patterns. When you open it, it plays a beautiful melody, here is a jewel box, covered with silk and finely embroidered. Inside is a delightful bracelet made of Siamese silver.
It consists of many square plates, each plate is black on the top and has strange figures in silver on the black side, Siamese dancers, elephants and magic figures. In another box I find 6 m of dress fabric, gold brocade, woven with colorful oriental patterns, and immediately afterwards a blue quilted satin jacket appears, also with beautiful patterns, Japanese flowers, temples and birds! I'm just speechless as I unwrap one gift after another. Probably every woman has received a small welcome gift from her husband here, but this one is just too much, I still don't know how I earned all the nice things. That's not all, by the way. When we look into the dining room, we first see a refrigerator, which belongs to the RAF, but it is full of food of all kinds, and what no longer fits in it is just on top.
On the large dining table we find new surprises: a wonderful tablecloth with 6 napkins, light blue with silver, a delightful tea set made of the finest porcelain, painted in color and gold, and when you pick up the cups and hold them up to the light, a girl's head appears at the bottom of each cup. That evening we are all very happy, the family is finally together again, our house: is very nice, the journey is finally over. After dinner, the children go to bed and fall asleep immediately and we go to the veranda for a while, which we can reach either from the kitchen or from the yard. Here we have a magnificent view over the water to the hills of the desert. Now the travelogue is actually over, but I have to tell you more about here. First of all, I want to make a sketch of our house.
[Unfortunately, this sketch is not yet reproducible]
October 1958
The Arabs here in Tobruk are incredibly poor, or at least that's what it looks like at first. In the three months that we have been here, I have had a fairly good insight into the life of the Arab population, and now I know that some of the men dressed in rags are the owners of several houses, and many others have 2 or 3 wives, a number of goats and sheep, which is considered very rich here. But most people here are actually even poorer than they look. I know a family here, very poor people, but hospitable, polite, very friendly and fond of children. We often go to visit her, the children and I, sometimes Bob comes with us. They live in a hut that they have built themselves from ruins that still lie everywhere on the outskirts of Tobruk from the war, if there are not enough stones on one side, a large piece of sheet metal or a few wooden planks is simply installed, and if that's not there either, they hang a piece of sack or other stuff in the gap until something better is found. Dogs, cats, goats, sheep, chickens, rabbits, even one or two pigeons all live in the "house", but in separate sheds, there is no furniture in this house, only a few woven mats lie in the corner, which is used as a "good room". When we come, the woman brings colorful pillows and blankets as seating. The man - as with most families - does not work at all. The woman does all the work at home and also has to earn money. It is amazing how little money these people get by. Our family here has about 6 adult children who work in Benghazi and have to send money and parcels home on a regular basis. As long as the elderly live, all sons, even if they are married, must support their parents.
The daughters are married from about 14 years of age, and the future husband of each girl has to pay her father a nice sum of money before he can marry her. Very young girls and very old women are allowed to walk around unveiled, all others have to hide their faces as soon as a man - except father, brother and husband - comes close. The rich women have beautiful veils, the poor simply wear colorful scarves. In addition to the 6 big children, our people have two younger ones at home, a boy who goes to school for the third year at the age of 12, and a girl who will never go to school at all. There is no compulsory schooling here, many boys only go to school for 3 or 4 years and most girls do not go to school at all. Every time we visit this family, we are treated to everything they have to offer.
First the woman fetches a bowl with a charcoal fire on which everything is cooked, then she brings fresh bread that tastes good! Sometimes, when they have just had a holiday, she also has small cakes that she has baked in a homemade stone oven and that taste very strange. Arabic tea is drunk without milk from small glasses and is terribly strong and bitter.
As a special delicacy, there are roasted peanuts and sometimes freshly boiled eggs. Before we go home, the woman packs us a few eggs, and often we get a freshly slaughtered chicken or rabbit! However, we also bring all kinds of treasures such as English cigarettes, a giant can of jam, tea and sugar or even a few old things for the children. I already speak enough Arabic to be able to talk to my wife about house and children, and to my husband about the latest news from Cyprus. Our children are greatly admired and every time the boys play with they have to lift their shirts a little and pull their pants down a little bit, because our Arab friends just can't understand that all the visible skin of our boys is just as brown as their own, but that they are completely white under their pants! In addition to these friends, we visit a rich family who live in a real house and have Arab servants. Bob is not allowed to come here because the woman is still very young. The young servant is also veiled and usually there are other Arab women there who want to see me and the children. When the women are among themselves, they throw back their scarves and veils. Most women are very beautiful when they are young, but when they are in their late twenties or early thirties, they become old and ugly and very thick and fat.
This house is properly Arabic. A long corridor leads from the street to the courtyard, from which various doors lead to the kitchen, bedrooms and living rooms. Here they even have furniture, beautiful carved wooden furniture that is also upholstered. But even with these rich people, all life takes place outside in the yard. Mats are laid on the ground, I get a chair, and then the tea is prepared on the charcoal fire just like the poor people, only here the fire is in a copper basin instead of in an old bowl. For sugar and tea etc. they have silver vessels instead of old tin cans and plates woven from raffia. The young woman here does not work at all, the man is very rich, he owns several houses and is currently building a hotel.
In addition to this woman with three small children, he has an older woman with nine children, but they live elsewhere and later he wants to buy a young wife. Here, too, we exchange gifts. I bring her a necklace or English food from the Naafi, and in return I get Arabic perfume or Arabic toys for the children. All Arabs like us. The English women are far too fine and snooty, but I am learning Arabic and am very interested in Arab people and their way of life, which makes a big impression. Shopping is a lot of fun in Tobruk. We usually go in the evening, when the children are in bed, then it is nice and cool and we can choose what we want to buy in peace.
During the day there are not many people on the street, only the donkey carts with water or paraffin or kerosene, or a few Arab boys selling bread, eggs or fresh vegetables. In addition, you can see the Bedouin Police everywhere. It is very feared, because everyone is immediately put in prison for the smallest offense. Fines are useless, because no one has money after all. At certain times, the "crier" climbs the tower of the mosque and calls the believers to prayer. Then the men come running from all sides, take off their shoes in front of the mosque door, kneel and touch the ground with their foreheads, faces turned towards Mecca. But in the evening it is very lively. In front of every front door and on low walls, the men sit and play with the children.
Even now, women are very rarely seen and then only tightly veiled. Arabs in white burnus stand everywhere and tell each other great stories, judging by their arm movements and wild facial expressions. Often we have to make a small detour because a small fire is burning in the middle of the street and a few Arabs are sitting around it with their cups of coffee or tea. In the evening, the Arabs also come from the desert to the city. Some come riding on donkeys, every now and then we see a sheikh with 2 or 3 servants, all on wonderful Arabian horses, wrapped in costly robes, and the horses with beautiful blankets. Most of the time we go to the "market", where we can buy delicious fresh Arabic bread and potatoes, which are very expensive here, fresh fruits and vegetables. We ate grapes by the pound, every merchant offers large grapes to try. Here I ate fresh figs for the first time, also fresh dates and fruits that I have never seen before, including the fruit of a certain type of cactus! Melons come in large quantities, two or three different varieties and they all taste delicious!
I buy most of the food in the Naafi, but from time to time we also buy in an Arab shop. In addition to English, they also have great Italian, Dutch and German food. All traders here are extremely friendly and helpful. We can go from one shop to another, look at every single piece of goods and leave again if we don't like it. The shops here are very simple, a small room, three sides with compartments and shelves up to the ceiling and the fourth side is completely open. This is the door during the day and at night, really at night, most shops are open until 10 or 11 o'clock or even longer, a kind of shutter is lowered, lock in front of it and that's it. Most traders sleep in their shop, the construction workers sleep on the construction site, many men simply sleep by the side of the road or in a house entrance.
By the way, none of them feel like working. It is very rare that someone really "earns" his weekly wage, but since they are very poorly paid, no one says anything here. When things get really bad, you send "her" or "him" home and hire someone else. I was lucky with my Mabruka, it is really a pearl, but in El Adem, where many Arabs work for the R.A.F., some are windowed out and new ones are hired every day. Although King Ideis lives nearby, we rarely get to see him. His palace is surrounded by a high wall, and two Bedouins stand guard at the gate day and night. When the king leaves, two Bedouins on motorcycles drive ahead, then the king comes in his state car, then comes a car with ministers and entourage and finally an armed soldier's car. Every Friday is a public holiday here, flags are attached to every house: black-green-red with a white star and crescent moon.
The king's nephew, Prince Omar, is only 8 years old, but is already considered the king's successor. By the way, he goes to the English school, to Achim's class. Of course, he is taken to school in a private car, and he often lets Achim go with him and brings him home in the car.