John Correll
Over a three-day weekend in 1990 while on a job assignment in Cairo, Egypt, I decided to visit Israeli friends who lived in the Jewish settlement of Ariel. When the Egyptian taxi driver picked me up from my hotel, he was very talkative and friendly until I told him the airlines was El Al. There was dead silence and he didn’t say another word.
I also met a fellow amateur radio (ham) operator living in the settlement. Yossi invited me to his house to use his radio equipment in which I made many international contacts—including several to the States. At the time of my visit, I was engaged to be married and one of the U.S. amateurs called my fiancée on the telephone. Through a “phone patch” (no cost) we were able to talk to each directly (This was long before the internet. At the time, international calls were very expensive).
I spent my final day in Jerusalem where I met a good friend from Sweden who also happened to be in Israel. My trip to Israel was brief, but truly an international experience!