** ALERT - not many pictures attached to this blog. Sorry! **
Leaving the African continent was truly bittersweet. I loved the beauty of each country I visited. I found the majority of people warm and welcoming. The wildlife was outstanding! There is nothing like seeing animals in their natural environment doing what they were made to do. Just incredible. It brought me to tears many times. All of that being said, I was tired and glad to be returning home. I learned quite a bit about what not to do while traveling internationally; like don’t overstay your Visa :)
I awoke at 4:15 am on Monday morning, February 23rd to catch my shuttle to the Swaziland airport. My flight was to leave at 8:00am. I was flying to Johannesburg, South Africa to catch my original flights home to the States. I was a bit worried about what would happen when I got to South Africa since I technically was not allowed to be there, you know being undesirable and all :)
I made my shuttle just fine. Checked into my flight with South African Airways. I was a bit annoyed because I wanted to check both my bags and they would only let me check one. Turns out this was a good thing……more on that later. So, I check my huge bag and then take the smaller “carry-on” with me. Unfortunately, I forgot that I had bottles of wine in my carry-on that got confiscated when I went through security……UGH. First problem of the trip.
I got to the gate and waited to board my flight and cried a bit. I was tired, annoyed about my baggage and my wine, still upset I got stuck in Swaziland, happy to be going home and worried about what was going to happen to me when I got to South Africa. Flight left on time and was overall pleasant. I slept the whole way. It was only an hour flight. The weird thing is that every flight I took during this 4 month period of time where I left one country and went into another, the flight attendant (before take off) sprays the cabin with bug spray. Not special bug spray, Peaceful Sleep (Africa’s version of OFF). Peaceful Sleep, that’s funny :) Anyway, it’s really annoying and makes me choke. Is that really doing anything??
So, I arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa and try to go through immigration to get my bag so I can re-check it onto my next flight on Qatar Airways. DENIED! They would not let me through to get my bag. They would not let someone escort me to the baggage claim to get my bag. I was told I had to go to the international transport area and ask the person at the South African Airways counter to go get my bag and check it for me onto Qatar Airways. Seemed simple enough. Ummmm……..WRONG! Nothing on the African continent is simple.
I go to South African Airways counter and tell the girl my situation. She looks at me blankly and proceeds to spend 45 minutes trying to track down her baggage supervisor. After 45 minutes with no success she tells me to go “sit over there” and wait. She will get back to me. The international transit area is basically no man’s land. I can’t go into the South African portion of the airport. I can’t go into the gate area because I have no boarding passes for my Qatar Airways flight (their counter is not open yet). So, I sit in this area. There is no food, no water, no nothing except for a bathroom. Not even a vending machine or water fountain. I have been up since 4:15am and have had NOTHING to eat or drink. It is now 10:30am. I wait until 11:30am and go back to the SAA counter. She says I have to have Qatar Airways go get my bag so I need to wait for their counter to open. I go back and “sit over there” and wait.
At 12:30pm finally Qatar Airways opens their counter. I go to this girl and repeat my story. She goes to SAA and asks that girl about it and they confer. Qatar Airways girl says she is working on it so go “sit over there”. I do as she says and finally at 1:30pm (my flight leaves at 3pm) I go back to her and say how ridiculous this situation is. Why is it so hard for someone, anyone to just go down and get my stupid bag and check it onto my flight? Not to mention I have been stuck in this area since 9:30am with no food or water since I can’t go to my gate. She was nice and said she would print my boarding passes so I can go through and get some food/water and that she will have someone meet me at the gate with my bag. Sounds good. I get my passes and go through. I get a bite to eat and a coffee. Buy a couple things at the gift shop and head to the gate.
I arrive at the gate and they are already boarding the plane. I tell the gate agent my situation since I don’t see my bag. He says he needs to check everyone else onto the plane and then he’ll deal with me. So I go “wait over there”. Everyone has now boarded but me. The gate agent has no idea what I’m talking about. He calls the girl that was helping me and they confer for a bit and basically tell me that SAA has to bring the bag and they have no control over them. Since they haven’t brought the bag over there is nothing they can do about it. I need to get on the plane or they are leaving without me. Now I freak out. I start crying and yelling. I tell them that I know that if I leave my bag here I will NEVER see it again. I am not leaving without my bag. Why is it so freaking (I didn’t say freaking) hard for someone to just go down to baggage claim and get my bag??? Really?? I tell them how shitty their customer service is. The guy is unfazed and tells me to get on the plane or don’t. He doesn’t care. I ask if I can get put on the next flight while I wait for this situation to get resolved. He says I can but it will cost extra. I ask how much extra and he can’t tell me. I ask him how I am supposed to make a decision if he can’t tell me a price. He doesn’t care. He tells me to get on the plane or it’s leaving without me. I have no choice but to get on the plane. I am beside myself. I’m surprised I didn’t get arrested. I throw my bags down the jetway cussing the whole way to the plane. I can’t believe this was even an issue. WTF. Does this sound like a hard thing to remedy to anyone else? Go down and get the bag and bring it up here and gate check it. Done. Freaking Africa. Seriously. This is why it was good fortune on my part that SAA at Swaziland’s airport only allowed me to check one bag. If I had checked both I would have nothing.
The flight from Johannesburg to Doha, Qatar was fine. Long, but fine. I arrive in Doha at midnight their time. The airport was nice and modern. I had time for a good coffee and then went to my next gate. I only had about an hour to kill. Next flight, also Qatar Airlines, was from Doha to Frankfurt, Germany. This flight was also fine. No issues. I get to Frankfurt about 6am. Next flight is at 10am. I wander the airport, get some breakfast and coffee. Then I have to go through security to get my flight from Frankfurt to Charlotte, NC. The guy at security was a giant jerkface. He looked through my bag of souvenirs I purchased in South Africa and managed to think my wine stoppers were weapons. UGH. Really? I was so over this crap by now. I started to get upset and the guy started laughing (wrong thing to do to me at this point). He kept saying “calm down ma’am”. He finally let me go through with my wine stoppers. I never thought to use those as a weapon until he gave me the idea…….I wanted to poke his eye out!
I finally get to Charlotte and my sister, Heather, picks me up. I was so nice to see her and I was relieved to be home in the States. I was quite chilly and the only shoes I had were what was on my feet - my flip flops. Literally, the only shoes I had. Not cool. First stop, Starbucks :) Next day I went to Heather’s office with her and spent some time on my computer complaining to South African Airways and Qatar Airways and to anyone else that will listen to me about my horrible experience and my bag. I also sent my paperwork to the South African government to appeal my “undesirable” status. The fast internet was SO NICE after having shitty internet for the past 4 months! After work we picked up my nephews from school and got to take them to dinner. We had Mexican food because I had been craving it. Mexican food is not prevalent in Africa. It was a good time. We dropped them off at their dad’s house and then headed back to my sister’s.
The next day I woke up and was deathly ill. I had been sweating off and on all night long. In between the sweats I’d be cold/shivering. I had a massive headache behind my eyes and I was nauseous I couldn’t even drink water. I had severe muscle aches. I was miserable. My sister went to work and when she came home she was worried because I was still in the same position in the bed. I hadn’t moved at all. That is very unlike me. I NEVER lay in bed all day even if I am sick. She took my temperature and it was 101.6F. We decided I should go to the hospital.
We get to the hospital and they start freaking out a little because I’m sick and I was in Africa. I kept saying I was not in Western Africa but they didn’t seem to be listening. Finally they realized I was not an Ebola risk. First they thought I had malaria but the test came back negative. They just treated my symptoms (ondanestron, morphine) ran me some fluids and then sent me home after a few hours. We went home but I wasn’t much better the next day so I had to go back. Long story short they (the ER doctor and the Infectious Disease specialist) think I had Dengue Fever. Not easy to test for but it seems the most likely.
I missed my flight home (was supposed to be Saturday) so Heather had to book me a new flight for Monday. I finally felt OK by Sunday so I got to see my nephews again, spend time with my sister, her boyfriend and his kids. I wish I hadn’t been sick so I could have spend more time with them instead being in the hospital and in bed. But, such is my life……
I arrive back in Denver and my car had a flat tire and a dead battery so I had to spend $600 on tires and $150 on a new battery. UGH. I had a HUGE stack of mail to go through and I was to start work in a few days. I managed to catch a cold that then turned into bronchitis. Sometimes I can’t win!
Finally, four days after arriving home, a miracle happened. My bag arrived at Denver International Airport! Thanks a million to South African Airways for stepping up to make sure I got my bag. It arrived and everything was still in it. AWESOME! I thought for sure I was never going to see that bag again!
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| Reunited and it feels so good! |
It was an amazing adventure but I am glad to be back. For now. I am already looking to my next adventure. I am in negotiations with a private company that contracts veterinarians to the military to provide veterinary care to the military’s working dogs. If I accept the offer I will be leaving in June for Basra, Iraq for a year contract. It pays VERY well so I will be completely debt free (except for my student loans) when I return and I will have some significant savings too. During my year stint I will get two, 29 day leaves to do whatever I want. One of my leaves will be to Mexico in August so I can volunteer for the VIDAS spay/neuter clinic. I’m hoping my other leave will be to Nepal or Morocco but that’s open right now.
Thanks to everyone who came along with me on this journey. I was fun to share it with you. If anyone plans to travel to Africa let me know and I’ll give you some pointers :)
“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” ~ Greg Anderson
