Trip to Abuja, Nigeria
THURSDAY
3PM EST – dropped off by Pam and Risa at the MARTA station for a ride down to the airport.
4-5PM EST – wander around trying to figure out where I’m supposed to check in. Finally discover it is the international checkin, which has a 45 minute wait (of course).
5-6:30 PM EST – hanging at my gate, flight is getting delayed. This is the flight from ATL to Dulles…apparently bad weather elsewhere is causing delays. It looks like it’s now going to be too late to catch the connecting flight from Dulles to London. Trying to contact Delta to re-route.
7-9 PM EST – growl...2 hours in line at the Delta International terminal (terminal E). Been on the phone for 2 hours while waiting in line. Delta says they can’t help, as my flight is a combo across three airlines (Delta, United, British Air) and United ‘owns’ the deal – in otherwords, United gets the money, and then pays the other airlines some chunk of it. Talked to United, talked to Delta. Back to United when I get to the counter. So now I have both a United agent and a Delta agent working on it, but not getting very far. About 20 minutes of this and I hand the mobile to the Delta agent and told her to work with the United agent to get me to Abuja.
9:30 PM EST – finally found a way, going to have to catch a 9:50 flight to JFK, then a flight to London on BA in the morning. The Delta agent told me that she had taken care of the luggage and booked it all the way through. Of course all I had were the original bag tags that said to go to London and wait for me. As an aside, they told me originally that I couldn’t check them all the way through because I had an over 6 hour layover in London. Although, Arvind was able to check his all the way through (but he did fly BA all the way).
9:50 PM EST – at my new gate, but the flight to NYC-JFK has been delayed (why not) until 11:30 – going to Benigans to drink a beer. Met a lady from Ft. Lauderdale who had just spent some time in New Orleans, sounds like the city is still a mess.
11:30 PM EST – flight heads to NYC. On the flight, met a man from Connecticut, works for a helicopter company (some Russian name, dude bult the first(?) helicopter). His nightmare was that he was down in south Alabama earlier today when his flight was cancelled, so they had to take a bus to ATL. Boo hoo,
FRIDAY
1:30 AM EST - Flight lands in JFK. Cold but new snow hasn’t arrived yet. Idiots at the gate can’t work the stinking jetway (I mean how hard can it be!). Have to exit the plane from its butt.
2:00 AM EST – As expected, luggage did not come with me, likely headed to D.C. I find a seat, sorta comfortable and start watching Pulp Fiction.
3:30 AM EST – Okay, getting sleepy. Ask a quintessential NYC police officer for British Airways terminal and he oh so kindly directs me to the AirTrane, heading for terminal 7.
3:50 AM EST – Terminal 7 doesn’t open until 4:30 AM (yeah, this is how my trip is going to be, you can just feel it). I go back to the AirTrane station, sit down finish Pulp Fiction.
4:50 AM EST – go to terminal 7 – oh yeah, BA doesn’t open until 6:30! Snowing outside...5-6:30 AM EST – wander around aimlessly, read, snooze (ish), brush teeth (ah).
6:35 – BA dude (another NY classic) tells me I’m pretty much screwed with my luggage, also that I don’t really have my ticket to London. Sends me to their ticketing office and to talk to UA baggage services.
6:45 – 7:30 – BA ticketing – agent is not ready, so I wait. Finally helping me locate things, got my ticket straightened out, but very worthless wrt my luggage.
7:30 – 9 – Hang out @ gate awaiting flight from NYC to Heathrow. Check in, and (of course) my ticket was kicked out (after spending all that time with the ticketing agent!) and they had to re-assign my seat – bulkhead, swell.
9-11 AM – Sitting on the plane for 2 hours while they deal with the snow storm and the ice that has formed on our wings.11 AM EST – 10PM UK – 6 hour flight (lost 5 hours) not a horrible flight. Read, watch parts of Dukes of Hazard.
10 PM GMT – Of course the flight being delayed means I have to deplane and run through Heathrow to catch my flight to Abuja. I just know the luggage is toast, but decide to get myself there and then worry about the luggage (bad decision as we’ll see later).
10:20 PM GMT – As the BA attendant if she could look into my baggage situation. As per normal, she says she can’t help since they were originally checked in with Delta/United…great advice, she says to check with the agents in Abuja.
11:40 PM GMT – in flight about 15 minutes out from London…
SATURDAY
6 AM WAT – arrive in Abuja! Yeah. Get off plane, immigration gave me no hassle, must’ve known what hell I’d gone through to get here!
6:30-8:00 AM WAT – wait in line to talk to BA agent about my missing luggage. As expected, it is not here. Pathetic organization, people milling about butting in line, as organized as…not sure. Finally get to an agent, fill out a paper form, and that’s about it.
8:30 AM WAT – walking out of the terminal, was surprised (pleasantly) to see somebody there holding a sign that said Kipp Jones – now how often do you think that happens in Nigeria? The driver for WATRA and Mrs. Emakpore had slept all night at the airport waiting for my late butt. Thanks Joseph!
9 AM WAT – Arrive @ the Sheraton Abuja. Not quite ready to check me in, so I ask Joseph to take me around a bit of the town.
9:30 – 10:30 AM WAT – Buzz around town, getting a good tour of the city. There was a political convention going on (the People’s Democratic Party, apparently the largest was having their, what I would call primary, in Abuja. Traffic had some interesting Atlanta like characteristics, except that most people who didn’t want to be in the traffic took the sidewalk back, which was quite interesting.
On the way around town, I asked Joseph to help me exchange some cash. We stopped by the side of the road (there is a name for these money exchangers, I’ll have to figure it out and post it). Joseph has become my negotiator, he got us up to N139 from a starting point of N130. Naira in the hundreds, it’s hard to get used to paying thousands for things…10:30 AM WAT – Go to get a SIM card for my phone. Decided to go to MTN so Joseph took us to the MTN office. Note that there are people selling sim and recharge cards by the dozen on the street nearly everywhere, wild for me. I had to go through a metal detector to get into the store to buy my card. N480 for a card and some time (I’ll help out, that’s about $3.50). As we were walking out, were conversing with Jane, a friendly seller of MTN supplies. She sold me a recharge card, but couldn’t get my phone to work. Ah, my phone is still locked to the current SIM – damn Cingular! Had Jane show us to a little shop where a dude came out, Joseph negotiated, and I paid N1000 to have my phone unlocked. The sim worked, but still couldn’t get the recharge…
11:00 AM WAT – Fill up the gas tank for Joseph. N3300 to fill the Peugot (interesting, gas stations have attendants that put the gas in and then you pay cash – is that weird or what?). I gave him an additional N500 for driving me around. I have no idea if I insulted him or not.
11:30 AM WAT – Back @ hotel, of course they are having problems with the computer checking me in, it doesn’t like the rate I booked on the Internet ($78/night). Finally it goes through and I am escorted to my room. Oddly, Joseph follow me to my room as well.
11:45 AM WAT – Kick the steward and Joseph out and finally have my room!
Noon PM WAT – Shower and wash my clothes, since I have:
- No meds
- No chargers
- no power converter
- no clothes!
I figure I should make some clean ones…
1-6 PM WAT – Nap, watch TV, read, phone home – briefly as I’m about out of power on my phone.
6:30 - 10 PM Going to go to one of the hotel restaurants for dinner. I’m guessing N2500…
Wandered around the hotel, found a bar by the pool (the Boat House). A party of Europeans (me thinks Dutch) and a couple of other folk populated the place. Had to test the Nigerian Star beer. Not bad, and .6L for N380 or about $2.50. A few bears, some local beef Suya, spicy with green & red peppers, onions, on skewers. Yummy and spicy, good stuff and fries to boot.
Waitress and bartender had a spirited discussion about the Koran versus the Bible. Unclear, but seems some tension around here – political and religious (not surprising given where I am!).
Been very comfortable here, nice place, pleasant atmosphere…just darn nice.
Tomorrow, I’ll get out a bit more, maybe by some clothes, since mine are going to be stinky real soon now…
SUNDAY
6:30 AM WAT – woke up, thought some additional water would be nice & wanted to catch the sunrise. Too hazy to see, but still a pretty sight. N400 for a 1.5L bottle of water. Not bad, figure that and my Clif Bar will ge me through to dinner.
Today’s plan, get Internet access, catch up on email, post this (like that happened!) and some pics, catch a nap, find a shirt to wear, and do some WATRA planning. Would be really like to find out where my luggage is – maybe send enough info to Pammy to make some phone calls.
Last night a gentleman at the Boathouse mentioned wireless Internet by the pool…wonder if he was hallucinating or if it could be true, guess I should check (still haven’t checked, but all other mentions of wireless in the hotel have been wrong!).
8 – 11 AM WAT – took nap, feel much better.11 AM – 2 PM WAT – check out Internet access. The business center has access @ N50/minute – N1000 and 20 minutes later was able to send a couple of emails and check for critical messages.
Also determined certain rooms have dial-up access for N3000/day.
Lastly, the report I overheard last night was echoed by another person, supposedly available in the lobby as well…
Checking @ the lobby, found no APs, but confirmed with a lady that it was apparently working yesterday (suspect an AP with dial-up?). No matter, I only have about 15 minutes left on my laptop battery.
I have a power cord, unfortunately my power converter/adapter is with my luggage…
Speaking of which, I received a call indicating that my luggage had NOT arrived at the airport…thanks for that message!
Bought an outfit, shorts and shirt so I could blend in – actually so I wouldn’t be quite as stinky.
3 PM WAT - @ pool writing and reading. Wearing my new shorts…
5:30 WAT – back @ room, spoke to Pammy, she is working on getting my luggage here. It still seems the luggage is @ Heathrow, as expected. No clue whether it will ever make it here.
6:30 – on – back to Boathouse to eat a pretty good burger. Back to room, reading and writing…then sleep…
MONDAY
2:30 AM WAT – Wake up – silly brain won’t let me sleep. Still wish I had my luggage!
So, the next time I do this, I’m definitely going to have a duffle bag with me that will have enough clothes, bathroom stuff, extra shoes, power sources, socks, undies to go a couple extra days.
Read until 6:30, wander around, another N1000 on Internet access, then back to the room to await the arrival of Arvind.
8:30 – 10:45 AM WAT – Hang with Arvind, he also lost one of his bags – go British Airways – awful, I tell you!11 AM WAT – received call from British Air, my luggage arrived!!!!! YEAH!!! Unfortunately, have to go to a meeting and they don’t deliver…
11:30 AM WAT – Joseph buzzes me over to the WATRA offices (West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly) to meet with Mrs. Lolia Emakpore (I can even pronounce it now!). Mrs. Emakpore is the Executive Officer of the organization. Received some clearer information about the mission, status, goals, and needs. Will take her input back with me to formulate what I can actually deliver during my time on this project.
6:30 PM WAT – Finish up at WATRA and head back to hotel – WITHOUT MY LUGGAGE!
TUESDAY
I’ll stop my diary here, but spent the morning trying to get Joseph to take me to the airport, finally got there around 1:30 PM, about 25 minutes of hassles to get my luggage out of luggage jail – never been so happy to see luggage (and you should have seen how much lost baggage BA had in their baggage jail…I would have been ashamed to have opened that door).
Get back to the hotel around 2:30, showere and put on new clean clothes!!!! Ah…much better!
Only thing that doesn’t work now is my phone charger…that doesn’t make me happy. Oh well…could be worse, I could be without my luggage!
Noticed this reminder from home on the way back from the airport...
The rest of my posts will concentrate on my reason for being here!
