The flight departed promptly at 12:30am Sunday
morning. At about 1am the pilot
announced we would be landing very soon, “There is a little mist over the
Kigali airport, but it shouldn’t affect our landing.” Not five minutes later the pilot informed us
the mist had become too thick and we would have to circle the airport for a
bit. After an hour of circling the pilot
informed us we were running low in fuel and had to return to Kampala.
We arrived back in Kampala right around 3am to find the
Kigali airport was “closed” until dawn.
(Important background information: After dropping half the passengers in
Kigali the plane was supposed to continue on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.) After
sitting on the tarmac in Kampala for two hours, the pilot made the call that he
would take everyone to Addis and then those of us who were supposed to go to
Kigali could catch a direct flight later that day.
At 7:45am we arrived in Addis where NO ONE gave us
any information or made any effort to help us.
We weren’t supposed to be in Ethiopia, so we couldn’t go through
Immigration. So we were stuck in limbo,
like Tom Hanks in The Terminal. The 40 or so of us Kigali passengers stuck
together, but no one would give us any definitive answers. Apparently the answer to everything is, “You
have to speak to a supervisor.” Funny,
we NEVER found a supervisor.
Around 8:30am after being left alone at the
departure gate, despite none of us having boarding passes, one lone gate clerk
appeared and told us he only had about 25 seats on the flight. That caused the expected outburst of anger
from the crowd. At this point I realized
I probably would not be going to Rwanda.
And at this point I really didn’t want to; I just wanted to go
home. I have to say Ethiopia has the
worst hospitality of any country I’ve visited. After more than 40 countries,
that is a pretty harsh criticism coming from me, particularly because I tend to
be a pretty level headed and understanding traveler; it takes a lot to get me
bent out of shape.
After watching the chaos of one gate clerk trying to
issue 25 tickets to 40 angry people I decided to leave and figure out another
alternative. At this point I learned
Addis does not have iron-clad security which most airports attempt to claim. I walked out through the security gates,
without getting a visa or entry stamp.
Then walked through an “Employees only” door because I thought it might
lead me back onto the tarmac, which, thankfully, it did. I thought at this point I should be getting
myself arrested (which I figured would be helpful because then someone would
HAVE to help me) since I was a civilian walking across the tarmac underneath
the parked airplanes and around all the fuel trucks. Somehow NO ONE saw this as a red flag!
I went to the Ethiopian Airlines Arrivals and
Transfers Desk where I was ignored until the one desk clerk finally told me
she’s not helping people; I needed to get in the next line. “This line? The line where everyone is standing, yet
there is no one at this desk to help anyone? Oh, great, thanks for letting me
know I should be in THIS line.”
After about twenty minutes I arrived at the front of
the line because the deaf Chinese family of 7 in front of me decided they had
wasted enough time and gave up. Shortly
after, another desk clerk appeared to assist customers! YAY! I
explained the fact I couldn’t get on the Kigali flight because they didn’t have
enough seats for all of us. I asked her
to just send me home to Gaborone. Thirty
minutes later I finally got a new ticket, leaving this morning to Johannesburg
and continuing on to Gaborone in the afternoon.
This meant I had to spend last night in Addis.
I spent the next hour getting through Immigration,
followed by harassing the baggage claim attendants. Apparently, they scan the barcodes on the
bags as they put them on the planes.
But, they do NOT scan those barcodes as they are off loaded. So, they couldn’t tell me whether my luggage
had been removed from the plane or where it was, in this or ANY country. I’m thinking I will never see that bag again,
which is particularly disappointing because the hiking boots for my Kilimanjaro
climb in less than a month are in there.
If I don’t get the bag soon I need to buy some new boots immediately so
I can start breaking them in.
My lack of confidence that my luggage will ever
surface emanates from my time spent in the baggage area yesterday. Imagine a
baggage claim area with 8 conveyor belts.
All conveyor belts are continuously moving with luggage, but every
square inch of flooring between the belts; you know, where people normally
stand and watch the belts in hopes of finding their luggage?; every square inch
of floor space is filled with unclaimed luggage. So passengers are literately climbing over
mountains of luggage looking for their bags, while also hoping it might fall
off a conveyor belt. I watched this scene
for about an hour while Blen, the baggage claim lady, who I told I would tip
$100 if she found my luggage, manually searched for my bag. In the end she couldn’t find it.
I couldn’t take it anymore. After three hours in the
Kampala airport, 8 hours on the plane going from Kampala to Kigali to Kampala
to Addis, and then another 5 hours in the Addis airport trying to get things
sorted out, I left for my hotel. I was
too exhausted from the travel and lack of sleep, and my nerves were completely
shot from the stress that I didn’t even play tourist. Normally when I get “stuck” in a new city I
will at least make an effort to see something, anything. Not this time. I checked into my hotel, took a nap, watched
some tv and then went back to bed until my flight this morning. And my two flights today were wonderful. I’m always happy to get back to the Gaborone
airport. I’m happy it’s my home airport
because it’s probably the easiest airport I’ve ever been through. And I’ve never been so happy to be back as I
was this afternoon.
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