When I got on the plane back in Washington Dc I discovered that my favorite watch had died. SO for the next few hours, well days on the plane I had no idea what time it was in eastern standard time or any other time zone for that matter.
When we arrived in Addis it was around 7pm and I had a delay from my 9pm departure til 1022pm. I checked email and called my guesthouse to make sure the taxi would be waiting for me at 130am when I was finally to arrive after a long flight. Walking to the gate, on the later side of the boarding time I noticed that no one had boarded the plane. It seemed that no one knew when we were departing, how long it would be til they found out, where we would go before arriving in Dar and of course, that lead to not knowing when my arrival time would be.
We inquired with those at the gate and everyone we spoke to had a different answer. Arrival would be 130am, no it would be 345am, we would be leaving soon, we may have a layover in Rwanda. No one with an Ethipian Airlines uniform knew anything and of course, all we could say was…. This Is Africa!!!
After a long wait and still no answers to arrival time we boarded the plane around 12am. We sat on the runway for atleast 30 minutes or so and of course I was alseep before we even took off. No sooner did we hit the cruising altitude did the lights go back on, the beverage and dinner carts were rolling down the aisle and dinner was served, at 1am in the morning.
I ate my vegatarian meal of not rice and veggies but uncooked beans and veggies and went back to sleep. Since I didnt have a watch that worked I still dont know how long my flight was, no one else around me seems to be able to figure it out, (with the time zone changes), and neither did the flight attendants… Seriously! When we arrived in Rwanda, yes, apparently we were going the long way to DAR and made an unscheduled stop. When all the passengers for Rwanda got out I went up and inquired about arrival time and our next departure.
I was told by three different crew members it would be an hour before we took off and a 40 minute flight. I told the people around me, those who have been trying to figure out what time it is in Rwanda, Tanzania, or America… we all had a laugh that we had to sit around and wait and made comments about maybe we should head to Sudan and pick up some more people before going to DAR.
No sooner did we get comfortable stretching out on the empty seats of the plane an annoucement came over the speaker. We will be leaving within 30 minutes and our flight time is 1 hour and 40 minutes. The plane was filled with laughter, and the saying, “This is Africa,” was said been many.
We all knew we were going to DAR, eventually….. and we did… I arrived at my guesthouse at 544am and Nora was wide awake.. I was told by my taxi driver, ” i wait for you at 2set, at 3 set, at 4set, at 5set and finally you come out of the airport, i wait for long time, what happened?” When I mentioned Ethiopian Airlines, you said, “always that airline, never on time, always!”
I just smiled, and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the earling morning on my first day in Tanzania, and i thought to myself, “This is Africa!”