Ticket
Counter
It
was early morning when we arrived at the Mombasa International Airport. Our
ministry team had spent a week in East Africa teaching at a Pastors Conference.
Eager to begin the journey home, we were the first to check in for our flight
to Nairobi and on to Amsterdam and then USA.
International
travel is an exercise in patience, especially in Africa where the love of
bureaucratic procedure is an art form. The number of rubber stamps needed to
get through Immigration defies common sense. The next step was baggage
screening through an outdated X-ray machine. Then on to boarding passes.
At
the check-in counter, upon submitting my passport, the agent began a computer
search for my reservation. After twenty minutes, I was told that my reservation
could not be found. Not too surprised, I submitted my printed itinerary. This
further confused the agent. I politely asked if I might step over the counter
and join her in the search. Shortly my reservation was found with a sigh of
relief.
The
next step was to have my luggage weighed. Apparently, the flight from Mombasa
to Nairobi had weight restrictions. When told that my suitcase was five pounds
overweight, I was in a quandary as to what to do. So, while the agent was glued
to the computer, I took my bag off the scale put it on the floor and took out a
handful of dirty laundry. Placing the suitcase back on the scale, the agent
said I passed the weight test. While the agent was printing my boarding pass, I
replaced the dirty laundry and gave the bag back to the agent and proceed to
the gate.
My
traveling companions were amazed at my ingenuity. As the plane took off for
Nairobi, I prayed that the extra five-pound of dirty clothes would not cause a
crash in the jungle. Over the years, I have learned to never leave home without
a paper copy of every reservation be it airplane, hotel or car rental.
Computers are not always reliable and sometimes they don’t tell the truth.
Travelers
beware!
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