Togo: A Day in Western Africa
A Fourth of July in Togo, Africa.
It can be represented in two parts.
ACT I:
A Bitter evening in Zambia, Bole, and a Boeing 737
[this includes a more detailed account of my evening at the Lusaka airport as mentioned in the last entry.]
After a long day within the confines of Zambia’s largest airport - which is actually not that large at all - we are able to set the scene where I find myself pacing up and down the hallway of gates, which is about ten in total.
The monotony of viewing the sole and bright LED-screened flight-schedule board, which had been displaying the same two Nairobi-bound Kenya Airways trips for hours, had started to take its toll on my already short-wired sanity at this stage of the day.
The current time is 1:30AM and you could say I’ve overstayed my scheduled time in Zambia, and definitely in that airport.
My plan for the day was somewhat ambitious to begin with, and some may say quite stupid- I may be the number one supporter for that choice of word in this instance. To back track and reiterate a bit from my last entry, I started my morning in the Addis Ababa airport and, impromptu the day before, came up with the bullet-proof plan to fly four and a half hours each way to Zambia, just for lunch. To illustrate, that is nine hours of flying in total and I would only be in Lusaka for two and a half.
As you can guess since I landed here at 1:30PM and it’s 12 hours later, at least I evened out the flying time to time on the ground more properly!
Showing up to the airport from my lunch a bit later than I should have and also somehow becoming a scapegoat for an issue involving a man who was here for the second straight day after missing his fight the day before were two crucial factors as to why I was still in that airport almost half a day later after I was supposed to leave.
Anyway, to get back to get back on track; I was very tired and growing weary of the pacing that had to exist as the only thing to do in this hallway I was confined to. Before too much pain commenced, however, it was time to board my 2:25AM scheduled flight at about 2:20AM.
This is very helpful since my international connection time was only about an hour to begin with, and I would have to run practically at touchdown in Ethiopia.
Due to the fact that I fly standby on 98% of the flights I take, and I have the flexibility almost to create my own connection times being able to list for most flights that exist, this tight connection experience I was prepared for are experiences thankfully I seldom have.
However, seldom experiencing this also means I did not have the full confidence in myself or ability to make this actually happen.
I also knew I had only the knowledge of the Bole International Airport from my short time there about 24-hours before after arriving from Rwanda on an overnight flight the evening before. And you could say the inaugural African trip jitters also didn’t necessarily scream confidence in making my tightest international connection of my life.
Either way and whatever happened though, I knew I could only control what I could control. How fast I went through that airport, making sure I knew where I was going, properly preparing for security by taking my belt off and my laptop out to save some time; the works. But all of that was going to happen when we made it to land again - so the only thing on the agenda for now was to sink into my seat and take the best Boeing 737-700 nap of my life.
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upon the sudden wakeup from the jolt of the plane’s wheels on the ground at the end of the four-and-a-half-hour journey was pretty much the first time my eyes had even been opened since before we took off.
My mind started to get ready, and I knew it was go time. The only thing offering confidence was that I had traveled enough at this point that I at least stood a chance. That is all I was working with.
After the initial daze of waking up I ended up doing the math and realized we had actually made up about fifteen minutes and I needed all the extra seconds I could get- and an extra 900 I would gladly take!
My seatbelt was the first one off and my butt was the first one out of its seat. Extremely jolty and luckily only about seven rows behind the front exit door I was also the first person patiently waited to exit the aircraft. This ended up not mattering though because it was ten minutes later that stairs were finally attached to the door and we still had to take the wonderful and extremely slow tarmac bus that Ethiopian Airlines and Bole Airport has to offer.
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TO BE CONTINUED…
