Best laid plans...

Monday, October 30, 2017, Tulip Hotel, Accra, Ghana

We departed by hotel shuttle for the airport at 10 AM; we were puzzled that no one seemed to be in line for our flight except for one local gentleman.  The sign at the Kenya Air counter said Sierra Leone, not Liberia.  Nevertheless, we thought that they were just joking when they told us that our flight had been cancelled a month ago, no doubt right after we made the reservation.  It has been common in the past for them to limit their service between these West African countries but had for a time given daily service.  For some reason there was no phone number or e-mail to contact us by, not ours or the Church’s, so they couldn’t tell us this really excellent news…

We spent the next hour wondering how to handle this situation, which was multiplied in difficulty because our visa was only for one night.  After trying to figure out all possible solutions, we decided that we needed to stay, so Jim called the hotel to ask for one more night.  We ended up cancelling that later because we found out that like most decent airlines, Kenya Air would take care of us by putting us up in their hotel at their expense, and that a shuttle would pick us up and deliver us again in the morning.  

Then we had to notify the couple in Liberia not to take their long trip to the airport to pick us up.  That was a bit of an ordeal because we couldn’t call from the airport on the phone we had, but this one nice man sitting there gave us his phone to use.  Don’t you just love good Samaritans?  We couldn’t get the couple’s phone number (stuck in the phone that doesn’t work at the airport) so we called the Accra office and then they called the couple for us—another problem solved!

This left our ‘elephant in the room’ visa problem to deal with.  We only had a visa for the night, so if we needed to stay an extra night, we’d have to extend the visa by a day—how much would it be (probably another $100), how long would it take (at least an hour probably), and how would we deal with this problem?

Luckily, Kenya Air has obviously done this before, so they called the visa people and set it up for the morning.  They would bring us to the airport at 9AM and escort us to the visa department.  We hope that they will also pay the $100 for the extra day!  Our feelings of panic were diverted! 

The Entrance to the Tulip Inn

It even has a small swimming pool.

                              

All this reorganizing took about two hours, and then we waited for their hotel shuttle and wondered what kind of place it might be.  30 minutes later we were at the Tulip Inn.  It is an older hotel, not that large, but with a hotel restaurant and even a swimming pool.  When we got up to our room (hot in the hallways, but air in the rooms) we realized that they had booked us into two separate rooms!  (Really?!!  I think we looked like we were together!)  So when we got to the slightly crowded room with a large bed, we told them we would be staying together, after which they changed our room to what I presume is their ‘suite’.  It had a large sitting area with a lovely curved couch.  The bedroom was separate, and each had a TV and their own air conditioner.   The bathroom is adequate too, and the towels were even larger than the ones at the fancy and expensive Accra City Hotel!  It is not crowded here and wonder how many or few might be staying.  The Internet is rather quick too!  It won’t be such a bad day after all, even though at first we were beside ourselves wondering what on earth we would do! 

I loved that the stairway walls were decorated, all differently, all so interesting and beautiful. 

     

          

 Our sitting room. 

We went to the restaurant and ate our lunch, after which Jim came back to the room and passed out…it was a hard day in the beginning…

Bye till tomorrow.

Getting there...

October 29, 2017, 11:15 PM Accra City Hotel

Dear Family and Friends,

Here we are again in Ghana, staying overnight and heading out to Liberia tomorrow.  Most trips are fairly uneventful, thankfully.  And as long as the plane lands safely, anything else is just petty complaining.

In order to save a lot of money this trip, we had to book an extra flight to Seattle first, then onto London and then Accra.  We were happy to get this schedule, even though it meant adding one more flight to our usual schedule; our only concern was a short (time-wise) connection between the second and third flights in London and worried our luggage would make the transfer.  Because of this we did some carry-on luggage just in case, but also checked two bags, one of which was for donations.

 

For our first and shorter flight we asked for an upgrade to 1^st class on American.  I was not surprised when we got it considering our status with them.  Because this was a smaller plane, it meant that we had a little extra room and got an actual meal.  The plane must have been new, as the personal screens were large and clear and everything had a new feel to it.  Our cold meal was lovely and very good.  What I didn’t know was that we’d actually get to watch a movie of our choosing.  This lovely new plane made the other two larger planes pale in comparison, especially the last one—small, hard-to-see screens, less room in between rows, aged upholstery, etc.

We arrived in London only in time to head towards our departure terminal, a long process, but time to rest for a minute before departing.  Our flight to Accra, was 1½ hours late, which is quite typical.  The lines getting through customs are long these days in Accra, but the airport has been modernized and orderly and in time we got up to the counter.  This is where old people get in trouble, as did we. 

On the Ghana visa it shows the date of the expiration of our passport, and then the date of when the visa was obtained and for how long.  It does not show when the visa expires.  Jim had checked on this at least three times before we planned our trip.  The problem is that he had been looking at the passport expiration date—our actual visas were expired last month!  Not a problem, just go get one and pay cash for it. 

One can never do anything quickly though in Africa, leading to what most couples say when working here—TIA (this is Africa) to remind us that we’re not in Kansas anymore.  When we left the customs line, we could see that many more had arrived so that the line was way out of the serpentine area and that we might have to get back in that line again!  That turned out not to be a problem though because it took another hour for them to issue us a visa.  We sit there and watch them, never in a hurry, but still, do they try to make it as long as possible?  It must be some sort of art form…  So we paid our $100 cash, knowing we have to do the repeat on our return in two weeks, just to stay overnight at the hotel here in Accra!  Ugh!

By the time we got back in line, we saw that we were among the last half dozen people to get out of the airport.  I told the local airport workers that we were there to clean up after everyone was gone!  Jim was so anxious to see if our luggage had arrived, that he left me there to wait for my passport and went on his own.  Our luggage had arrived, and that was what we’d been worried about all along.  We felt so blessed.  Then as we went to get out of the airport I asked Jim where my small carry-on luggage was—sure enough, in his haste he had left it near the carousel!!  I was so happy I’d noticed!  It all makes me wonder if we’re getting too old for this…no brains at all, apparently…

Our next worry was that the Accra City Hotel shuttle had stopped running this late with hardly anyone left in the entire airport.  Much to our relief, there he was waiting for us still! 

So, safe and sound, all luggage accounted for, and our old brains somewhat still with us…blessings!!  We awoke in time for breakfast—my hair hadn’t even moved during the night—some sound sleeping!

Love, Jim & Karen, mom and dad, E/S Greding