Chapter Twenty-Four: Back to Kigali, past Nyanza and Butare
Civilization Beckons But Airline Strike and COVID Test Deadlines Threaten
12.20.2021 - 12.20.2021 78 °F
View Morocco + Uganda + Rwanda on paulej4's travel map.
I never sleep well the night before what I have always referred to as "getaway day," the day I leave for a trip. Long or short, domestic or international, the day of the flight is "getaway day."
Last night was no exception. Scanning the internet for Brussels Airlines News, I came upon this: Unions maintain Brussels Airlines strike despite management’s formal notice of default: half of Monday’s flights cancelled So it is a potential Good News/Bad News situation. The Bad News is that half of Brussels Airlines flights today are canceled, the Good News is: Fill in the blank here with the words, Your Flight is Operating On Time. Then I found these reassuring words: "Management asked the pilots and flight attendants who was willing to work and who was not. It still sees a certain will and expects half of the scheduled flights to be maintained, essentially all long-haul flights to Africa and North America and their feeder flights."
I had, well before this trip commenced, downloaded all relevant airline apps onto my iPhone. I took the leap: I'll use the Brussels Airlines app and see if they will allow me to check in. Tap here, enter this, check that, verify something else and, voilà! I have a boarding pass; the app says my flight is on time. Brussels Airways flight 467 leaves at 9:10pm, stops in Entebbe for an hour and then turns north to Brussels, Belgium. That is, unless something else goes wrong.
It's "The Russell Luck" vs "Murphy's Law." Root, root, root for the home team. On this extended Odyssey, it has been Murphy's Law ahead early but with Russell Luck coming back to score in late innings to pull out the win. Let's hope the streak continues. (I wish I could apply my luck to Joe Manchin's decision making process)
For insurance purposes, I decided to check what alternate routings are available from Kigali to London. I found a KLM connection through Amsterdam but Amsterdam is closed. I found an Ethiopian connection but there is a bit of civil unrest in Addis Ababa and I would prefer to avoid that if possible. Ah, there's the one: Rwanda Air to Doha connecting with Qatar to London. If I can get to Doha, I can get anywhere, even skipping London if need be. That Rwanda Air flight WB300 leaves Kigali at 11:35pm arriving at 6:20 the following morning and there are business class seats (as far as Doha) just sitting there waiting for me. It is always good to have a backup plan and now I have one. Just knowing which airline counter to go to when your flight on another carrier is canceled gives you a leg up.
My final day with Sam and his trusty Nissan will entail about six hours of driving, leaving at, depending upon who is briefing me, 8:30am or 9:00am. To break those hours up, there is a lot of looking out the window. Rwanda is the land of 1,000 hills and on those hills going both up and down, big trucks with heavy loads shift into low gear and crawl. Since the roads wind and curve, we have to wait for an opportune moment to pass. Sometimes those moments come quickly and sometimes they seem to come not at all.
Approaching Kigali, the atmosphere changes. Hitchhikers use a special Rwandan approach
and intersections are chaotic.
Even with all of that, we are early to Kigali so we go to poolside at Hotel des Mille Collines (Hotel Rwanda) and I opt for a margarita; Sam has a coke. We have a couple of hours to kill. We could go to the airport and he could drop me off but I will be unable to check in for my flight and clear security because that opportunity isn't available until three hours before scheduled departure. So, we enjoy the pool bar and sort out my disappointment at the events of a couple of days ago.
The one message I left is that, when all three of the occupants of a vehicle speak english and one does not speak the local dialect, using the local dialect for a long conversation is rude--at least to this American it is. That is particularly true when the non-speaker knows that the conversation is in total or in part about him. Glad I got that off my chest. And, speaking of foreign languages, if you have travelled outside the U.S., you know how frustrating it can be to get Google in English. Here, it is easy. You just choose English or françias or Kiswahili or Ikinyarwanda. Easy peasy.
I decide that, doing the COVID deadline math, I am probably going to need another COVID test to board my flight in Brussels--the one to London. It is possible, not likely but possible, that the test I will take with Cianán tomorrow morning in Brussels won't be back in time to check in for the flight. There would have been but British Airways cancelled my later flight so I am on an earlier one, not by choice. So, I ask Sam if there is a place here in Kigali that I can quickly get another test. He says, "Let's go." I go to a testing center and within an hour and with another fifty bucks on my credit card, I get another test. The results should be back about when I land in Brussels. It is insurance.
Then, Kigali Airport. The published requirement for checking in to an international flight is three hours prior to flight time so that means 6:10pm Central Africa Time. If you've been reading along these last three weeks, you will recall at the vehicle entry to the Entebbe Airport, there was a guard who wants a bribe. At the entry to the Kigali Airport, get ready for this, there is an x-ray machine that you must run your car through. It is similar to a car wash where you pull up to the conveyor belt, get out, the car moves ahead on the conveyor and you walk around a pedestrian hallway. Except here, that pedestrian hallway is where they run your body through the x-ray machine while the car wash thingy is x-raying your entire car along with the bags that are in it. At the other end, you get in your car and off you go.
At the terminal, I bade Sam farewell, shouldered both my backpacks in walked in like I owned the place. Stopped by a woman in full COVID gear, I had to show my negative test taken on the 18th at 6:00pm. It is now 6:00pm on the 20th. That's good enough to get past this nice lady. Next, I go through a document check desk--it looks like passport control but it isn't. There, they demanded my Belgium PLF--Passenger Locator Form. Cianán had tipped me off that I needed this. The document inspector guy was surprised I had it. Next, of course, passport. Next, proof of vaccination. Next, Negative COVID test result form once more. Check, Check, Check, Check.
I've made it into the check-in lobby. To the Brussels Airlines Business Class counter I go. "Yes, the flight is operating normally." The nice lady there wants to see all the same forms. I handed her the boarding pass I printed out at the hotel and she looked at, nodded, and asked how many bags I am checking. "None."
"Those are carry-on bags? Please place them on the belt." She weighs them. "You are only allowed 16 kilos for carry on," she tells me. Clearly, the scale says they weight 21.2 kilos. "But I am in business class," I say. "You are only allowed 16." I reply, "But I am checking nothing. That makes me the passenger with the least weight on the entire flight, wouldn't you say?" "You are only allowed 16."
I try another tack. "OK. There are cameras in there. I will take them out and hang them around my neck. Until we get this down to 16, I will start putting things in these pockets, pointing to my cargo pants which have, what, a hundred or so pockets. Will that work?"
Miracle of all miracles, she gave up and put little "Accepted" tags on both bags and said, "The lounge is at the top of the stairs and then left. Then ask someone up there for directions." I got away from her as rapidly as I could. For the record, on British Airways, business class passengers are allowed two carry-ons and each one can weigh up to 23 kilos. On this journey, these two carry on bags were fine on: United, Royal Air Maroc, Air France, Emirates, AeroLink and Rwandair.
Next stop, passport control. The nice lady there wants to see my boarding pass. I gave her the one I had printed out at the lodge and had shown to the nice lady at the ticket counter downstairs. "No," she said, "one that looks like this." She held up a boarding pass that would have been printed at the ticket counter. "The nice lady at the ticket counter," I said, "said this one was fine."
"But, there's no line down there. I'll be happy to go back and have her print one of those if you like," I said with a smile. Amazingly, she gave up. She started stamping and shuffling and asked me to pull down my mask to see if I matched my passport picture, handed all that stuff back to me, pushed a button and a little electric gate next to her opened up, bathed in green lights, and I was through. I had made it. Do you remember the theme music from Chariots of Fire by Vangelis? No? Listen to it here and imagine me finally through all of that rigamarole. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a-HfNE3EIo
There is a very downscale business class lounge with soft seats and electric outlets and a lot of people speaking very loud French. I find a seat and flop down. It has been a long day. Another man with a headset sits next to me and makes a call speaking very loud French. One more man with a bigger headset is now pacing back in front of me and the guy I just mentioned, on a call speaking very loud French. Thirty feet away, a baby is crying in very loud French.
Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well in Brussels. ==AU REVOIR! FOR NOW!==
