travel adventures

My trip from Minnesota to Mali was really good.   Highlights for me were my last 2 American meals:  breakfast of an egg and cheese biscuit sandwich in Chicago, and a big burrito in Washington D.C. ( I really miss Mexican food when I’m in Mali!)  I enjoyed my last experience of being able to recognize everything on the menu and then getting my food immediately after ordering (some of you are anti-fastfood and don’t think that’s such a good thing, but when I’ll be spending several hours every day working in the kitchen and not getting instant food for another 2 years, I had no qualms about it)  Ok, so besides the good food, I also enjoyed watching a couple of movies on my long flight.  I could have made a bigger effort to sleep on the plane, but I usually can’t sleep well while traveling anyway. 
I was supposed to have 3 hours in Dakar between flights to check through customs and get my passport stamped, go find my baggage on the carousel, go out of the airport and back in through different doors to check in for my next flight.  Three hours would have been plenty of time.  The only problem was that my plane was delayed for 2 hours in Washington, D.C. and so by the time I got to Dakar there was only 1 hour before the plane was scheduled to take off (so maybe 35 minutes before boarding).  I was sure I was going to miss the flight.  I got through customs as quickly as possible, luckily there weren’t big lines and the officers didn’t hassle me.  I rushed to the baggage claim, grabbed a rolling cart (they’re free in every African airport I’ve been to) and waited impatiently for my 2 big checked bags to come by.  The first one showed up – a regular rectangular rolling zippered suitcase.  I waited for the next one.  I had thought I was so clever to pack all my heavy and unbreakable things in a cheap bag from Mali.  These bags can be found in any market and only cost $2-3.  They are a sort of woven plastic and people here travel with them all the time.  The reason that I thought it was clever to pack in this sort of bag is that it only weighs a few ounces.  A regular suitcase can weigh 8-12 pounds, and that is 8-12 pounds less of my stuff that I can bring in the allotted 50 pounds per bag.  Sounds like a good plan, right?  Well, it turned out to be a terrible plan when I found my cheap bag burst open and my clothes and things in sight coming toward me on the carousel.  It had all been stuffed into a clear plastic trash bag by the airport workers, and was sure to tear open again.  I didn’t have time to freak out and rummage through my things to figure out what was missing.  And I was sure that there would be things missing; I was trying to remember everything I had packed in that bag.  I just had to get it on the cart and get out of the airport so I could get back in the airport to check in for my next flight which could already be boarding by this point.  I pushed the cart out with a little detour before the door: they made me send all of my bags through an x-ray machine before exiting the airport.  This makes no sense to me unless they want to assure that I didn’t steal something from the plane or in the airport.  I got out of the airport, around the road to the departures door, and into the line to check in for my flight which I was sure I would be too late for by now.  While I was in the line a guy came over to me to offer bag-wrapping services.  Wow, what a perfect solution to my problem – for $3 he took my bag that had burst open and been stuffed in an even flimsier bag and wrapped it up in layers of green plastic wrap.  Now I still didn’t know what items were missing, but at least the things I had left would stay together.  I checked my bags, got my boarding pass and dashed to security and then to my gate.  Somehow (the somehow being that “This Is Africa” I suppose) the boarding hadn’t even started when I got to my gate.  I made it!
When I arrived in Bamako (so happy to be back in Mali!) a friend came to pick me up at the airport.  The first thing I wanted to do when I got to the base was buy another bag so that I could open up and transfer all of my things from the exploded bag in to the new one and figure out what went missing.  So in a deliriously tired state, after having just traveled for 25 hours after only sleeping 5 hours the night before that, I walked up the street and bought a bag for $2.40 and went back to the base with it.  I got some scissors to cut through the layers of plastic wrap.  I transferred each item into the new bag and realized with relief and awe at what I believe is answered prayer for my trip that nothing was missing.  Not one thing.