Well, every travel story has to have its own little travel nightmare story right? I was sitting up last night thinking about a couple of things that I realized I forgot to blog about, and thinking that this would be a great day to do so being that it is a travel day. Now, if you have read “It’s Not Far” from last year you will know that Nancy and I had a wonderful day getting to know our driver, Jude, on the 300 km journey from Accra to Kete Krachi…that took 13 hours. Yes, 13 hours. We had been on the road about 5 hours when we asked Jude how much farther and he said, “it’s not that far.” Nope, only another 8 hours. And 7 hills from the ferry to the credit union house. That was a good story. So you can imagine me thinking, “what am I going to blog about when we are FLYING the 200 or so km from Accra to Kumasi! Nobody is going to want to read “it’s a plane! it’s a plane!” I should never think that way because this seems to be the inevitable when you think that way.
We wanted to make sure that we were at the airport in time for our 3:10 flight this afternoon. We also needed to get SIM cards for our Africa phones. We thought we should probably leave around 11 AM to get to the airport for 1 because that was check in time. We got a call from the front desk saying that our drivers would be there by 1. We tried calling back, explaining that we needed phone cards and had to be at the airport by 1 to the front desk staff and they asked what time our flight was. 3:10….then we asked how long to the airport. 5 to 40 minutes was the reply ???? Yup, I heard her right. 5 to 40 minutes. CUA called back saying that the driver would be there at noon instead so Liam and I stayed back with the bags while the rest went for a quick jaunt to the MTN store we saw on our Sunday walk. I’m going to have to start bullet pointing this blog, just like “It’s Not That Far” because today, Kumasi is just as far as Kete Krachi.
-getting to the airport took an hour, not 5 minutes. But it’s OK, we can check in at 1 and it’s 1.
-Heather goes to the desk with her boarding card and the lady looks at her and says “Check in starts at 1.” Heather: “It is 1.” Lady: “We will open in a few minutes.” Heather comes back to us looking a little stunned.
-They open check in at 1:15, Liam and Heather get their boarding passes for Tamale, Louise finds out our flight is cancelled. “Go over there to the ticket booth, they will give you tickets on the 4:00 flight” (obviously lack of communication as that flight is booked)
-over to the ticket booth where we stand politely in line as people jump ahead of us. One nice man asked to get ahead as he wants to buy a ticket to Tamale, the flight Liam and Heather are on, “Sure, go ahead, we aren’t in a rush,” and when we told him why he shook his head in pity. Oh, nobody knows how much pity we need!
-finally at the ticket booth, we say “our flight was cancelled,” she says “well go over to the counter and get a new ticket!” Debbie: “We were told to come here.” Lady: “No, go there.” Off we go back to where we came from.
-Louise goes to the check in counter where they tell her again to go to the ticket counter, but love her, she stays put until a nice young man comes to see what the problem is. He takes her back to the ticket booth (remember readers, at this point we still think we are flying at 4….)
-Debbie waits with luggage, Louise waits at the ticket booth for nice young man. Our eyes lock across the airport (it’s not that big, we are in the domestic terminal). Louise shakes her head. I lift my arms, palms up, Louise holds up 6 fingers. Yup. Now we are flying at 6 PM. But not really at 6 because here they tell you your boarding time, not the actual flight time (that’s 6:30)
-Debbie, Louise, Liam and Heather head to the tent (the airport is under construction but there is a nice tent with air con for us to wait the 4 more hours). We need to call CUA to make sure the person picking us up in Kumasi knows we are flying a little later, but nobody’s phone is working. Heather: “Just go ask someone to use their phone, like that guy,” Louise: “Oh, I couldn’t.” Debbie: “No, I couldn’t.” Heather gets up and walks over to a random Ghanain, explains our situation, and he starts making calls. There is no answer.
-Five minutes later the nice man brings his phone over, CUA called him back. Explain the situation to CUA, all good! Liam and Heather depart with hugs, they will be met in Tamale by Jude.
-sit, talk, sit some more, talk some more…sit, talk….these seats are not conducive to 3.5 hours of sitting. Watch a giant thunderstorm come barging through, the tent has a few leaks but we stay dry. We do move away from the metal supports, Sandy told me to stay safe. Did I mention the tent is full of mosquitos?
-Yay! it’s 4:30, we get to the check in. I’m overweight. Because my awesome zebra stripe carry on is WAY too big for the little plane. So is Louise’s. I owe money, she shows us the calculations-they are in kg. Lady: “you are 8 kg over” Debbie: “But you made us check our carry ons, that’s 2x7.” Lady walks away towards the man that helped Louise earlier. Louise leans over and says “She’s going to him, it’s going to be OK,” and she’s right, lady arrives back and says we don’t need to pay! That’s Louise-2, airline-0. (She was staring at him the whole time with her “I dare ya” look.
-Debbie: “Wow, you have good karma!” Louise: “Watch what you say….” (insert Twilight Zone foreboding music here)
-it’s 6 PM!! Boarding time!! Louise: “What gate?” (Look at boarding pass, it says “Gate: *), the man who let us be overweight is standing there so Louise asks, “What gate are we?”
-Man: “Didn’t you hear the announcement?” Louise: “What announcement?” Man: “Your flight is delayed an hour.” Louise: “No, we didn’t hear any announcement, what is the delay?” Man: “Look outside, we can’t fly in this weather!” Then he asks her if she speaks English! (Not that this thought hasn’t crossed my mind a few times) Starting to get a weird “have I been here before?” feeling…..
-sky blackens, winds whip, it’s 7 now but still no rain. Liam and Heather like their hotel in Tamale that they have been at for several hours now. Airline comes around with water and cookies, which is good because Louise and I (expert packers we are) thought we would plan ahead for any delays and packed granola bars and nuts…..in our CARRY ONS. *sigh*
-flight was delayed, nice people kept coming around and telling us we were boarding in a few minutes. We finally get on the plane at 7:50, and taxiing down the runway the pilot comes on to warn us there might be some slight turbulence ahead….
-we’ve arrived in Kumasi!!!! Fred, the regional manager and Alfred, our driver and protector met us and they are super nice! They take us to the hotel (which by the way has sporadic internet so I apologize for maybe not so many pictures…it’s a little after 9PM, we need food….Fred and Alfred stop the kitchen from closing and get us some chicken and rice and all is good (insert sigh of relief here). We met a wonderful lady, Mana Konadu, and her daughter Maxine at the bar/restaurant…Mana Konadu is a seamstress and is changing the hotel curtains.
-Fred, Alfred, Mana Konadu and Maxine have made this journey worthwhile, can’t wait to get to work tomorrow!
Signing off at 1:30 AM from an eventful and exciting day in Ghana…..at the True Vine Hotel, Kumasi
Do they have the same driver as you had last year?? Jude?
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