The Maya Maya Airport

I think today we hit a new low. Spent what seemed like forever – but was probably about 8 hours at Brazzaville’s airport. Should have known something would be amiss when Jean-Pierre – the local “guide” came by at 6 AM to collect passports and check us in. So that we could go “later”. When we arrived the airport was a total zoo. No sign of Jean-Pierre – but plenty of vendors trying to sell us trinkets. We “cowered” under a tree outside. Then Akos had us move inside only to go back outside because of the “stifling” heat. Our peaceful corner soon became another zoo due to the arrival of a sports team from Cameroon. Soccer (football) I think – based on the size of the athletes and the number of players. Soon enough Jean-Pierre came with our passports and boarding passes and then the “fun” started.

We had to push our way through passport control – Akos and Jessica fighting to keep the group together somehow. Made it past first passport check. Fought our way through the crowd to “baggage check” – which was a cursory look at best. After which we entered the “waiting lounge” – which consisted of a few rows of chairs and “the bar”. And of course what was termed by many the most disgusting toilet they had ever seen (which is something, keeping in mind Laurie has been to all but about half a dozen countries in the world). Sanya said she had seen worse – and to be honest it really was not any dirtier than a the toilet in Mark and Mike Hecht’s apartment (which I’m pretty certain was not cleaned in two years). We were expecting to leave soon – and at least one flight boarded in what seemed like a chaotic fashion at the time. More and more people pored in and the room kept getting hotter and hotter. After a flight boarded Jean-Pierre had us move closer to the door. One of the doors was opened so there was a bit of air. I sat down on he luggage which helped and Sanya and Laurie somehow got seats. Mark started drinking beer – bringing to mind my worse travel experience – the train station at Bratislava – where Mark insisted on going on the day after Christmas in 2004 – only to be trapped in a snow storm – not understanding anything. Mark started drinking with a new “buddy” who in the end managed to communicate enough to get us to follow a blind set of moves (carrying then four-year old Anthony) that took us through a bus filled with soldiers, a snow covered field (where the soldiers relieved themselves), a mystery train and finally back to our very nice hotel room in Vienna – which any sensible person would never have left.

A few more hours passed and Akos seemed to think there was a broken part n our aircraft. But of course there were no announcements. Jean-Pierre went to “get” information but no one was talking. It seemed like things could not get any worse (I do not recall ever being hotter). And then of course things DID get worse. An extremely nasty looking policeman actually closed the door. Women started screaming at him – there wee a lot of babies and small children. He seemed to take uncanny pleasure on closing the door – you could see it in his face – he was doing this because he could not for any security reason. At this point Sharon thought we would die – the temperature was rising fast and surely someone would pass out. Got some water and eventually “Mr. Mean” opened the door. More and more time passed. We moved to the “bar” after some flights boarded. We may have had some food – I don’t remember—by this point I was having a very hard time eating. The Maya Maya Airport made me “long” for the African Train. We ask Akos to check into Air France flights out on Monday night – and he says he cannot as they have closed. I take my Blackberry and call Delta – ask for Air France’s number and find out that there are no flights. I take impish delight in doing what Akos said was not possible to do – which is childish but at this time my trust in Akos is severely diminished.

Akos said we would wait till 3 PM and then go back to the hotel (we had entered the room around 8:30 AM). 3 PM comes and no Jean-Pierre. A bit more time passes and then an announcement that the flight would not go – they would try again the next day. Quickly made our way out where there was some air – and into taxis and back to the Saphir Hotel in “beautiful” Brazzaville. The air conditioning in the hotel was heavenly – at this point just being away from the domestic waiting lounge at the Maya Maya airport was enough. I went back to the room and cried and told Mark I was not getting out of that bed until Friday.

Akos called a 7 PM group meeting. I was calm enough by then to attend – having given up my plan to stay in bed until Friday. By now doing the trek to the Central African Republic was a “Hail Mary” pass. It would only work if the flight was in the air by 11 AM – which would put us on the boat to the Doli Lodge (in Central African Republic) by 1 PM – hopefully an 11 hour boat trip would get us to Doli (after a dinner stop in Bomassa) by 1:30 AM. A quick sleep – and two groups of three could see gorillas (only three people at a time allowed to observe the gorillas – for an hour) on Wednesday while the rest saw Pygmies and went to the Platform to see elephants etc.; on Thursday we would get an early start allowing the remainder of the group to see gorillas and the Wednesday gorilla people to see Pygmies and go to the Platform. We would then leave Thu afternoon – sleep at Bomassa and back to Ouesso by Friday morning to catch the flight back to Brazzaville and then the Air France flight home Friday evening. No room for error on this schedule – in a region of the world where things have seldom worked to date. No guarantees that we would be back for the Friday flight – so Akos gave us the choice of staying behind. Possibly could go to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) across the Congo River. Or maybe even catch the Wednesday flight “Out of Africa”. But he encouraged everyone to go ….. I wanted to drop out at this point – the thought of being caught even deeper in Africa being horrifying. Spyros is going on to Australia and several more months of travel so he really cannot afford to miss the Friday flight – he vacillated. And Sharon wants out – which will make things even more difficult as she is a great source of comfort to me. By now we are clinging to each other so loosing any one will be hard. I begged Mark to drop out – but he insists that there are such things as gorillas and pygmies deep in the Central African Republic and he intends to see them. For the first time I wish I was alone so I could turn around – I am extremely worried about Mark and cannot just abandon him. But I will try again to persuade him in the morning …. In typical Brazzaville style the Restaurant we were going to has been commandeered by some oil people – so we go back to the Lebanese restaurant ….