After sad farewells to friends and classmates in Nairobi, I took a taxi to the airport Friday morning Kenya time or late Thursday night Washington State time. The Nairobi airport is extremely inefficient. I had to wait over an hour to get in the front door. I checked my bags with Ethiopian airlines, got my passport stamped and boarded the flight from Nairobi to Addis. When the beautiful Ethiopian airline attendant came to serve us drinks I instinctively started speaking to her in Swahili. I stopped myself remembering that Ethiopians speak Amharic and realized that my knowledge of East African customs/culture and my ability to speak (very limited) Swahili were now useless. These had been my most prized skills over the last 6 months. I was leaving Africa! I felt like superhero robbed of my special powers. I stared blankly at the stewardess for a couple seconds and then gave my order in English. After getting my ice water, I almost broken into tears on the airplane. I was going to miss Africa so much.
In Adis I recovered emotionally and boarded my plane to DC. I walk down the aisle and found a middle aged Ethiopian man sitting in my window seat. I said hi, smiled at him and told him that I thought he was in my seat. He responded by showing me his ticket stub and saying forcefully, "No, seat this mine." His stub was for the seat next to mine and I showed him the diagram on the bulkhead and repeated that I thought I had the window seat. He once again responded with, "No, I sit here" while pointing to the window seat. Even though before leaving I had called my travel agent to ensure that I got a window seat for my flight to DC, I decided to let him have the window seat. As the flight unfolded, it became apparent that the man was a chauvinist in addition to being a rude window-seat stealer. If he wanted to get up to go to the bathroom he would simply turn to me and say in a strong voice, "Move." When the stewardess walked by he would say, "Woman, bring me wine."
We arrived in DC around 9am on Saturday morning. I collected my bags and in customs I was sent to the special agriculture screening area. They checked my shoes and my bags and then I departed across the airport to check into my 12:25 United Airlines flight to Seattle. Once I reached the counter, I was informed that my 12:25 direct flight to Seattle was cancelled and I was put on a 5pm flight. As you can imagine, I was completely thrilled to spend an extra 5 hours in the airport after traveling for 2 days.
At 4:30pm we boarded the flight. At 5pm, our scheduled departure time, the pilot informed us we were going to wait for some luggage from other flights. At 6:30 our plane left the gate and got in line for the runway. At this time the pilot informed us that during the pre-flight check they discovered a problem with the circuit that allows the plane to land in adverse weather. He said that the problem should be fixed in about 30 minutes. Three and half hours later we were still sitting inside the plane and the problem still wasn't fixed. Infants and small children waiting in the still plane began to cry. At 10:00pm they moved us and our luggage to another plane. Once again we sat in the plane at the gate. At 11:30pm we were still sitting at the gate and the pilot came on to inform us that the pilots and flight crew had now been working too long to make the 5 1/2 hour flight to Seattle and the flight had been delayed until tomorrow morning. We disembarked from the plane and began to wait in line for hotel and $5 meal vouchers. I got my vouchers at 1:30am. They still hadn't picked a departure time in the morning so they told us to just be at the airport at 8am and they would tell us then when the flight was leaving. They informed us that we couldn't access our checked bags, where all clothes were located. After waiting outside in the dark at the hotel shuttle pick-up location for over half an hour, I arrived at the Sheraton Hotel at 2:30am. I took a hot shower (which was wonderful) and then stood in a towel while using a bar of facial soap to wash my clothes in the sink. I then dried them with a hairdryer. After 3 and half hours of sleep I returned to the airport and checked in to the flight and discovered it wouldn't be leaving until 12:45. By the time our plane was finally taking off I found myself thinking that I will probably never voluntarily fly on United Airlines again for a very long time. Their customer service, planning, and the attitude of United staff was completely sub-standard and made the 18 +hour delay even less pleasant.
A United Airlines plane flying - something the planes I got on didn't seem to be able to do. (Photo from google image search).In Seattle, I was waiting for my bags and my longer golf bag (that I got to carry to carry my Samburu spear) required special handling and ended up in the 'odd sized baggage' pile. Dealing with this made me miss my airporter shuttle by only 5 minutes. Score - just what I wanted: To sit in the airport for another 2 hours waiting for the next airport shuttle going north towards Stanwood.
Once I was in Stanwood, I was so happy. I got to see my family again! A long trip, but it is great to see everyone again.
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