So I arrived at the Zimbabwe airport very early last Thursday to catch my flight to Tanzania. No one at the airport seemed to know where the check-in for my airline was, but after about an hour someone arrived at one of the counters and began checking in the few of us who were waiting. My bags were checked, and praise the Lord the weight was ok. (Flying within the African continent involves a much lower weight allowance than flying to the US from Africa.) I was feeling very Zen at that time so the delay didn't phase me too much and I bought a Coke to help me wake up. I began to feel a bit nervous that my flight didn't appear on the departures monitor, but I was reassured by the fact that my boarding pass looked legit and there were at least a few other passengers waiting for the flight. A lady approached me and asked if I was waiting for the flight and I said yes. Then she asked, "are you Alexis?" Uh oh. "yes." "Your connecting flight to Tanzania doesn't fly today." In fact, there is never a flight on this airline to Tanzania on Thursday. Despite the fact that I have a confirmation number for the imaginary flight, I am escorted back out of the airport and my departure stamp in my passport is crossed out.
They did tell me there was a flight on Friday. I called the missionary who had dropped me off and asked to come back home with her for another night. Because of the delay, I was present for the arrival of a new missionary team which was headed by a doctor I apprenticed with in medical school. I had actually lived with his family for a month, so it was wonderful to catch up.
On Friday I headed out to the airport again. I briefly encountered the issue that I wasn't on the passenger list, but that got sorted and I arrived in Tanzania at 1Am on Saturday. Unfortunately the medical team I was meeting had already departed for our headquarters, 3 hours from the airport. The Tanzanian missionaries, however, had been able to change my reservation at the last minute so I had a place to stay. They also left me enough money to pay the cab driver and buy a bus ticket in the morning. I actually came up about three dollars short because I asked the taxi driver to help me find an ATM, and then I realized that I couldn't remember my PIN. Ooops! He forgave me the shortfall (maybe to get rid of the crazy American girl).
The next hurdle was that the bus I was on (with no money...again) had one of my suitcases underneath the bus in storage. The headquarters is on the road the bus takes, but they usually only drop you off if you have no luggage underneath. I spent some prayer on the issue because I couldn't afford another ride back to headquarters, and lo and behold, they let me off right where I needed to be! (maybe once again to get rid of the crazy American girl!) Oh, and on the bus, would you believe there was a vendor with a cold can of Mt Dew? I got him to accept an American dollar for it. :)
And so, despite all the craziness, I arrived and met up with the medical team on Saturday evening.
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