A bit late...The Trek Home

My apologies- it has taken a while for me to get the chance to post this, but I just had to post the saga of my journey home... it lived up to every expectation I could have had.

Just as a child would carefully set up a line of dominos and hope that the dog wouldn't wag his tail into a middle block before he had a chance to push down the very first piece, I set up my trip home meticulously and with a plan. I'd leave Malawi on Monday, arrive home on Tuesday, beat the jet lag by dinner on Wednesday with my mom, spend Thursday night with my dad, and then head to Philly to see the gymnastics Olympic Trials with my best friend on Friday night. I bought the tickets in advance and even looked into Amtrak from Penn Station in NYC to Philadelphia on Friday. But, the dog wagged his tail...

I arrived at the airport nearly in tears on Monday morning. Zach, Rachel and Kathleen came with me, and it was very hard to say goodbye. They each handed me cards with specific instructions not to open the cards until I was on the plane. I bargained with the check-in representative to pay less for my overweight bags, cried when I said goodbye to my friends, and then noticed the departure board said "Air Malawi - Delayed Indefinitely." Hmm, interesting. My friend (Grosi) is a customs agent at the airport and I asked him how long he thought indefinitely meant...a day? A week? He didn't know. We went upstairs to the airport restaurant (see previous entry and figure out why I refused to accept the free meal). I played the azungu role and bought him a coke, and we chatted at the table for a while. From his radio, I pieced together more of the story:

At one point in time, Air Malawi had 4 aircraft - 3/4 are now not functional. The fourth plane was in the hanger for service. The plan was to charter another plane from Kenyan Airways and the flight was supposed to arrive from Nairobi in time for our 1:25pm departure. By 5pm, there was still no airplane. When an Air Malawi representative finally dared to stand up in front of all the angry people, her explanataion made me chuckle. Air Malawi had never transferred money for fuel for the airplane so the flight was grounded in Nairobi, waiting for gas money. By the time funds were transferred and the plane arrived, I had already missed my connection in Johannesburg. I was scheduled to fly from Joburg to Frankfurt and then Frankfurt to NYC.

Fortunately, I met a really nice guy who worked for PIH. He was on a whirlwind of travel and had to get to Durban for a conference. I recognized his accent from home and we quickly realized that we both were friends with Liz. It helped to have a friend to go through the shuffle of travel. Air Malawi paid for a hotel room for each traveler, though we hardly spent any time there. We got out on the first shuttle back to the airport in the morning - something before 6am. I wanted to get there early enough to get on whatever the earliest flight to NY would be...too bad the airport was essentially closed until 8am.

It is now winter in Joburg, the airport was under major construction so the walls were mostly made of contractor bags, and I was freezing. When the airline offices finally opened, getting me home initially looked like a major challenge. I spent 3 hours in the Air Malawi office trying to get on a flight. The only thing they could do for me was a 7pm departure to Frankfurt - talk about a 12+ hour layover. And, while the Joburg international terminal is actually very nice, I couldn't get there because you can only check in 3 hours before departure. I took my bags, piled them on a trolly, and jumped on the top. I started (and finished) the book, "A Thousand Splendid Suns," slept a bit (but was woken up by a guy who told me to 'watch your sh*t, it's gunna get stolen), and made friends with a waiter who let me hang out at a table for a while at the only coffee shop on that side of security. Hours and hours, and hours, later, after arguing with the luggage guys about not paying again for overweight bags, I crossed into the nice area of the airport, and made it to my Lufthansa flight.

Upon arriving in Germany on Wednesday morning, I had to wait again on yet another check-in line. This rude German guy kept cutting me (more than once- he switched lines and then came back and cut me again!)Fortunately, I was able to bump my flight up a few hours and I got home in the afternoon on Wednesday...just enough time to settle in, say hi to my family, and head to Philly for a fun weekend with Nicole.

I suppose that's enough of a travel saga. I may come back and post one last time, but I hope that I was able to share some of the fun I had this year. I know I'll come back and reread these posts once the med school grind starts and I'll wish I had my Malawi routine back - 4:15am wake ups, sunrise drives, babies and babies and babies, fun runs with the girls, Hunters, cabbage salads, and DVD TV... I'm sure I'll be back - I caught the Africa bug :)

-dkm