Return flight

Met a nice couple, Katie & Jim, at breakfast. They were in Ghana to help to pick up their adopted granddaughter. I learned quite a lot about them and their family in the short time we got to meet. It turns out they live in The Villages not far from David's parents!

My new friends Jim and Katie.

I walked back to my room and found that the exercisers on the beach had changed.

No one seemed surprised when these hogs (at least I think they're hogs)
took over the beach when most of the people had left.

I went back to my room and finished the book that Patti had recommended, What Alice Forgot, I really enjoyed it.Samuel picked me up along with two friends.

Jeanne is much less scared of me. She even let me hold her a long time and smiled.

Jeanne and Jeanne

Samilia made real homemade Fufu. It was so good! I couldn't finish it at the time but my mouth is watering at the thought of it. 

Samilia is literally hand pounding the cassava

Stew and homemade Fufu

There was no electricity available at Samuel's house. So we didn't have the luxury of fans to cool us off. Samuel, Samilia and Jeanne are all used to it. I tried not to sweat too much on their lovely couches. We sat and talked and every once in a while I went online to see if my flights were still on schedule. Eventually 5:30 came around and it was time to go.

Samilia and Jeanne joined us in car to airport. Samuel put the air conditioner on high which I think Jeanne enjoyed because she fell asleep almost right away. I will really miss them. Samuel is such a wonderful friend and he is so clearly a fantastic husband and father.

Trying to explain to Jeanne that she's tired.

When I was in Ghana last time, I met a driver named Nelson who took me for a touring day of Accra. We have stayed in touch and Nelson begged to at least see me off at the airport. Just before I gave Samuel back his SIM card for the phone that I have I gave Nelson a call saying that I had arrived at the airport. He said he would be there soon.

I waited for a long time outside and then decided that I really needed to at least check in. Maybe Nelson would be able to look for me indoors. The check-in process had several stages to it where they looked at my passport, my Visa, asked me several times why I was in Ghana and where I had been. They had me open my suitcase and they used a special "sniffing" detector inside the suitcase before I even got to the ticket agent. This whole process took quite a long time and I was worried that I had missed Nelson. The board still said that the flight was on-time so I was encouraged that I might make it home after all.

Finally I had a ticket in my hand and my bag was checked so I went back out to look for Nelson. It was dark now so I stood near the door where he would be able to see me.

Unfortunately I discovered that standing near the door was a security violation. One fellow with the word security on his shirt told me that I couldn't wait there. I explained that I was hoping to see a friend before I got on the plane. No, I couldn't call him, I don't have a phone anymore. No I didn't have his phone number because it was in the phone that I had been using. He essentially told me that he wasn't going to bother me any more but that I was going to get questioned a lot and he went to shoo away some other people. A short time later there was a BIG commotion at the entrance. I'm not sure what exactly the problem was, but apparently a security fellow had shoved a young man and now the man was yelling and the woman he was with was yelling and he was saying, "Do you know who I AM?!" Eventually things calmed down, but I thought it was about to get very serious.

Sure enough as soon as that calmed down a fellow in a police type uniform who had come to settle that dispute came over to me and was more emphatic than the first. No, I don't have my phone. No, I don't have his number. But this time the officer said I couldn't stay. Then I remembered that I might actually have his number in my iPhone still from a Facebook Messenger chat that I may still be able to see even though I was offline. The officer allowed me to call Nelson and Nelson answered with an echo because he was also walking up behind me at that exact same time! We had a very nice, but fast reunion before he gave me some gifts for the family and then I headed toward the gate.

There are so many check points along the way to the gate! Took me at least 60 minutes to get from lobby to gate. First they took a thermal picture of me. Then a series of interview questions. Then another passport check (where the attendant yelled at me because I hadn't noticed that he was available [frankly because I wasn't sure he was actually working] quickly enough.)

Then there was the immigration form check. I got to the desk and discovered "Oooh! You wanted me to fill out this embarkation form BEFORE I got here. Oooh! I have to start over in this section?" Go back to Start, do not collect $200. Fill out the form, back in line, no I don't have money (trust me -- you can ask the hotels) and I didn't bring any valuables.

Now I'm finally ready for the typical security scan of carry-on. Friendly officers here. Shoes off, laptop out of the bag, through the scanner and get a good pat down just for fun.

Almost at the gate now. More interview questions -- were you in Ghana for business or pleasure. Who packed your bag? Did anyone give you anything?

On to the next stage, open every zipper in your carry on, run the sniffer test on the carry-on, one more pat down just for good measure. NOW, turn in your boarding pass and you can sit at the gate. 

Of course there was no internet available at this point so I started reading a different book that I had saved on my iPhone. Only about five minutes passed before I heard, "May I have your attention please. "Will Mrs. Jeanée Goodman, please come to the customer service desk."

The gorgeous agent behind the desk looks at me sympathetically and says that the Boston flight has been cancelled so that have already moved my flight to tomorrow... seriously? You tell me this now? Immediately start thinking about how much I just went through to get to this point. 

In a second it flashes through my head that I'd have to find a car to go back to the Ramada (assuming they have any rooms.) Samuel would feel obligated to see me and would probably miss out on something he wanted to do. I really wanted internet access, and really wanted to talk to David. I decided that it would be easier to find alternatives once I was on the ground in the US. So I asked to stay on my flight. They had already given my seat to someone else but they reissued my ticket and I prayed that they hadn't already taken my luggage out of the queue so that it would get left behind.

Finally we get called onto the shuttle bus by row number, and brought to the plane. I don't think the fellow sitting next to me spoke any English because he only really said "Thank you" and the rest were mostly just hand gestures.

The flight information on the seat monitor just before take off.

The wait to take off was really long. They had some kind of issue with the passenger list that they had to wait for, but I didn't really mind. By being in the plane I was already on my way home.