Tempest Tossed Travel
So, it has been a good long while since I last got around to
writing a blog entry, and of course lots has been going on- mainly travel
related, because why have an easy travel experience when you can have a regular
ordeal.
My first interesting flying experience was on a KLM flight
back from Amsterdam just after Easter, we were somewhere over the Sahara when
the call went out. It was one of those,
“Is there a doctor on board moments?” Of course there was. However, true to form that wasn’t where the
incident ended. The first responder
turned out to be a Witch Doctor. He
entreated the whole plane to pray for the sick man, and ordered the demons
leave. In the past this has never seemed
like a great treatment for epilepsy and the same was true in this case. Luckily by the time the cabin crew had moved
the praying doctor away a real doctor, this time with an MD appeared and
proceeded to put the world to rights- or at least as right as you can make it
while cruising at 37,000ft. I left that
flight wondering, and vocalizing how often things like this happen. It turns out I wasn’t going to have to wait
to long to find out the answer…
A week later I was on a BA flight from JFK into Heathrow
when the same call went out over the tannoy system. This time it appeared the situation was more
serious (or at least we were over a more densely populated area with more
hospitals and medical services) as we re-routed to St. John’s in an attempt to
land and reach a hospital. Unfortunately
the weather was too unsettled and after circling for a while we were forced to
divert to Gander, where the pilot did land the plane and medical teams were
brought on board to help the patient- who was removed and transported to
hospital.
Unfortunately for us (maybe a little selfish) Gander airport
was officially closed as it was 1:30am and we were running low on fuel due to
the detours and the circling- so back toward St John’s we headed, where we
could refuel and finally head back toward Heathrow. For the first time ever I was glad I had had
a six and a half hour layover planned as by the time the plane landed in
Heathrow it was down to a solid one hour.
Which meant there was just enough time to make the connection without
having to sit in a Starbucks free B Gate section of Terminal 5. When everyone tells you how great the
shopping is at Terminal 5 I assume they have never had to connect thru there-
either that or WH Smith, Boots and Weatherspoons now constitute amazing
shopping and a fantastic retail experience.
I am however, now back in Accra and all that that
entails. The weather is hot, hot, hot
with a few storms thrown in for fun.
There are of course all the little Ghanaisms still here:
The Container Store is not, as you would find in the US a
big store selling nothing but containers of all shapes, styles and sizes… but
rather a store made from a shipping container.
It is usually used as a workshop, or had products to be sold from inside
and more often than not is painted in some bright color as sponsored by a cell
phone company.
I’m sure I have said it before- but what is it with the way people
drive here? People are generally very
laid back, the phrase Africa Time has
come about for a reason; until people get behind the wheel of a car! Then there is mayhem. It is like nothing I have ever seen
before. Hands on horns, any side of the
road you want to be on, someone is already occupying the place on the road you
want to be in? No problem you can just shove them out of the way. If you don’t look then no one is there. The shouting the yelling, the pushing the
shoving… and then when you get there- well, you can be laid back again! No rush to actually do anything, jobs and activities
can wait.
Thursday night saw a rather large and somewhat damaging
storm. The kind that rips up trees, and
tears off roof tiles (proper roof tiles, not the banana leaf sort); I also
decided that as hurricane season started in the US on May 1st and in
lieu of Fox News to do the scare mongering I would name the storm Alice. If it had been a few miles off the coast then
I am sure Fox News would have the Doppler Radar on it and they would be
tracking it while telling everyone that the entire Eastern Seaboard was going
to be obliterated. (I really do miss Fox News), so I did their job for them and
created a storm watch of my own, along with the name. Accra city seem to have
completed the hurricane experience for me by making sure the power (and thus
the water) have also been erratic since Thursday, I think we have managed a
whole three hours with them working; not too much of a problem until the
generator also ran out of Diesel on Saturday night. Not too much to do on a Saturday night when
you have no power, no water and no light by 6:00pm. Early night anyone?
Anyway, this has led to me being in a bit of funk this
weekend and really needing to get out of town and just be somewhere else, so
next weekend is looking like a trip along the coast.
