🌟  Deescalate.

I was 22. Sitting in the back of a truck driving through the Sinai, Peninsula in a caravan of three trucks with a team of about twenty. We usually traveled by bus, where the guides would tell me (The only one from Caucasian decent) and a few of our team from China to move to the front of the bus for friendly checkpoints, and to the back of the bus for non-friendly checkpoints. But today, we were going on a day trip to a cliff diving spot in a dessert canyon. Our team was working to document underutilized tourist attractions in the country.

We were dressed in traditional robes and head scarfs in order to not draw too much attention and to abide the summer heat of the Sinai Desert.

We reached a checkpoint before entering a small town. Our vehicle stopped as papers were checked. As we started to drive away, the military guards started shouting in Arabic, and more guards came out of the station with AK-47’s pointed at each of us. Our driver was yelling, the guards were yelling and my team and I had no idea what was going on.

The driver and the guide got out of the car and spoke to the military, while they kept their guns pointed at us. Then they got back in the car, and we drove through the checkpoint.

After we rounded the corner, the guide explained to us that earlier that day, an ISIS suicide terrorist had broken through one of the other checkpoints in the town and killed 4 people. The guards had been on edge, and the driver had pulled out slightly before they were ready, triggering the response.