Thursday, February 18, 2016

My Parts Unknown: Tanzania And Malawi: Episode VI

Monday, 8 February 2016

I was up at 3 and couldn’t sleep. What if Jimmy the cabbie didn’t turn up? What if he couldn’t find the place? I was ready at 04:45 and left the room with my bags. I brought them to the living room and peered out. Darkness greeted me. No sign of Jimmy either. I paced and must have made Banet nervous. He was already in the kitchen, working on breakfast. He insisted I must eat before leaving although I had told him previously that it wasn’t imperative. Getting to the airport and making my flight was more important.

05:00 came and went with no sign of Jimmy. 05:10. 05:15. Finally, I asked Banet to open the door so I could walk out to the gate. It took him a while and when I got to the gate, the guard wasn’t there. Probably off to take a leak? I went back in. 05:20. Banet insisted I have something to eat so I poured some water for tea and had some toast. 05:30, I told Banet to call for a cab.

It took him another long while. He came back and told me the guard had no airtime to call for a cab. I didn’t understand why he needed to ask the guard to make the call so I asked if he couldn’t use the house phone. Banet then asked if I knew any taxi number. Say what? Why would I have any taxi operator number based in Lilongwe? Finally he found a name card of a taxi operator. The card looked old and I wondered if the number was still valid, if the taxi operator was still in existence. Still, it was the only number we had.

I asked Banet to make the call then he told me he didn’t have any airtime left either. What the -? He said he could buy airtime with MWK500 and I dug my wallet and gave him MWK500. It took an eternity for him to scratch the number to reload his phone. Man oh man oh man. I had carried my bag outside the gate by then and told Banet to wait with me.

Five minutes passed. Still no cab came.

I was already squatting and whimpering at this stage and told Banet to call the number again. Come on man! I must make that flight, I simply must! My flight back to Dar was scheduled for 07:15 and I was supposed to fly home later in the afternoon from Dar. All in all, we waited about 15 agonising minutes before cab arrived. And would you believe it, the cabbie had to refuel! But to his credit, he drove like a man possessed all the way to the airport through the fog and all.

We reached the airport in record time. The fare was MWK20K so I paid him MWK16K and the balance in USD. I had to have my ticket re-checked and guess what, the airline computer system was down ^&*()__!!# I still managed to check in my bag before check-in closed but had another problem at immigration. The smug pompous arrogant uncouth gruff immigration officer asked if my passport was diplomatic. I looked at him puzzled and said no. He barked why the stamp was for gratis visa in my passport and stressed that if I wasn’t on diplomatic passport, I should have paid for a visa. So I explained to him that I didn’t need a visa. He wasn’t convinced and asked me to come around so that he could show me his computer system and yeah it showed the same thing as what was shown to me in Friday. Exasperated, I told him what happened on Friday. He still wasn’t happy and was barking at his colleagues. Then he told me he needed to check with the office and took my passport with him.

I waited. 7 minutes later, he came back grumbling in his native language. He then duty stamped my passport, still muttering and then waved me through. Without any apology. Well, you know what? FU. What would it take for some people to apologise and admit their error? Would it be demeaning to them if they do so? If you didn’t want to admit your error, just say something to the effect that you didn’t know why the system showed otherwise.

I went to the boarding gate and good thing there was a TV showing the weekend’s matches so I watched them and calmed myself down. We were then called and oh guess what, we had to walk to our plane because the shuttle bus was out of order. Really, I think that’ll be my first and last visit to Malawi.


Guesthouse




We landed at Dar at close to 11:00 and after clearing immigration and getting my bag, I went out and sat down to wait. I went in the departure area at 15:55 to check-in. Again, I had to have to my ticket verified before I could drop off my bag. Next, I cleared immigration and went to the boarding gate. I was checking my emails and timeline when we were called to be ferried to the plane.

It was an uneventful flight and I managed to squeeze in a movie. I was about to doze off when we landed at Doha at 23:00. I cleared security transfer and went to wait for my flight home.

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

I boarded the plane at 01:15. Sleepy as I was, sleep was as usual elusive. We landed at 14:05 and I was home by 15:30. I had to clean the mess left by my brother’s family - WTF - amidst unpacking. Yes, everything had to wait until I returned home from Africa to be cleared.

But yes I would do it all over again if I have the rezeki, health, means and time. Now, if only flights to Africa don’t cost a bomb!