Our original flight was canceled and we ended up leaving a day later than originally planned.
Up early, pack, and wait for Debbie and her family to pick me up so we can head out to the airport. We end up being the first ones to arrive. Slowly, the others start to show up and we all go to check in at the ticket counter. We're told to only check our bags as far as New York and we will recheck them there as that gives us a better chance of having our bags make it all the way to Africa with us.
Once we're all checked in, we head down to the gate and wait. It's interesting because most of us don't know each other so we're all a little nervous and curious about each other.
Time to go--we take a small plane (and I mean SMALL) to New York. We fill the entire plane with our group. Once in New York, we go to get our luggage. It takes quite a while before it finally comes out--just a few pieces at a time. We don't all have our bags yet but nothing else is coming out until a few items of clothing, a book, other items start to come through by themselves. One of the professors finally notices that these are her things coming through. Her bag had gotten caught in the carousel and was completely ripped apart and everything was everywhere. For some reason I think this also happened to someone else but don't remember exactly what happened anymore. They went to the lost luggage area and were given replacement bags and then gathered up their stuff and repacked.
Time to go to the next terminal but we are missing some people. We send a few people to go look for them, not knowing yet that this will become a pattern throughout the trip. These people are gone for a while so we send a few more out looking for them. Then some others start wandering around and pretty soon we're all scattered everywhere and have to start over rounding people up. We finally find the original missing people, and then the others and finally move on to the next terminal.
We have the professors check in for all of us and then go grab something to eat in the food area. We don't leave for another 5 hours..... Long time but it gives us a chance to get to know each other a little bit.
Finally we get to board our Air Afrique flight (p.s. don't ever fly this airline!!). We're scattered throughout the plane, some in First Class, the rest of us in Coach.
The flight is supposed to be around 6 or so hours and there is NO MOVIE--just a screen in front with a map and a little plane showing where we are at all times. This was painful to watch--and you HAD to watch. Kind of like having to look when you drive by a bad accident. You don't want to look, you tell yourself that you won't look. But you do. The little plane on the screen didn't move for what seemed like hours. Nothing much to do on the plane after reading the in flight magazine so I just amuse myself by trying not to look at the map for as long as possible and then finally looking up, hoping that we've made progress over the ocean. Now, I don't know how you feel, but I really don't like flying and I really don't care to see that I'm over this huge body of water and I have no control over this situation. Especially don't like the fact that they keep showing our altitude as well. These things are better left hidden--ignorance is bliss, I say.
Our first stop is Dakar, Senegal I think (I'll check with some people and change this if I'm wrong). This is where it really gets interesting. We're told that even though we aren't changing planes, everybody has to get off the plane and go through some line. People are standing in line at the door of the plane before we even land--and nobody is telling them that they must remain seated, the tables should be folded up, and your seat in the up right position. Hmmmm. Interesting.
As I make my way towards the front, the professors grab us and tell us to sit down by them in First Class, to not get off the plane. This seems strange and we are getting some odd looks. Pretty soon everyone is off the plane but our group and we're sitting happily but nervously in First Class. Joyce, the one professor, doesn't explain what is happening but tells us to just remain there. A few flight attendants come by to tell us that we must leave the plane but Joyce talks to them in French and for some reason they leave us alone. Now, we're not really sure what is going on, we're just following Joyce's lead here.
After about an hour, people start re-boarding the plane while we stay where we are. First rule we learned: when traveling within Africa, there are no seat assignments. This means we are able to stay in First Class. Or at least most of us do. A few headed back to Coach to be near their carry on bags. There is also some commotion back behind us and I can tell that it's people from our group. Never a good sign. I won't go into detail here but it got sorted out and we continued on our way to the airport in Ghana. And, yeah, I stayed in First Class!
We were given specific information that it is illegal to take pictures at any African airport. It was amazing just how many people TRIED to take pictures there? Yes, some from our group as well. All got yelled at. Anyway, we get off the plane and go through customs and then go search for our bags. During this, the profs do a head count and realize we are missing two people--yes, the same two that we lost in the airport in New York--I said this was to be a pattern, didn't I? We search around and can't find them so someone volunteers to go back onto the plane to look there for them. There they were, sleeping peacefully, the only ones left on the plane.
Again, we run into the problem of missing luggage. We wait and we search but those bags are not to be found anywhere. We decide to head out anyway and we can come back another day to see if they arrive later.
We meet up with our driver and tour guide, John, who takes us to the buses and we are on our way to the school. The airport is in Accra, which is the capital of Ghana and we are headed out about 45 miles outside of Accra to a village called Kokrobitey.
Of course, none of us know where we are headed or how to get there but we all are intently looking out at everything we pass, soaking it all in. Some of the areas we go through are quite nice but some other areas are huts along the road. We go through a police checkpoint and turn down a bumpy, dirt road, which will eventually become all too familiar to us as it is the road that will lead us in and out of this area every day.