Out of Ouesso – the mad Dash for Air Congo

We leave the “dock” (after handing our passports to Jean-Pierre for stamps—we had done yet another illegal border crossing). Take taxis to a local hotel (it is actually quite nice – with air conditioning and clean floors – and their own mini-van). The idea is to have breakfast and wait for Jean-Pierre to come back with passports and boarding passes.

I had a new “problem” – my monthly visitor had unexpectedly arrived during the hike back from Dzangha Bai (one week early courtesy of the stress). I had a couple of items and scrounged some more from Claire and Jessica – enough for the trip back to Ouesso. Laurie goes for a walk every morning – no matter what (the energy is unbelievable). So she takes off for her walk in this very small town with a mission – finding me some supplies. Which she actually does (amazing!). For only $2. I am now feeling confident that the miracles throughout the night will continue and we will get out.

Someone comes back and reports that there is a window between the men’s and women’s toilet so a man standing up looks into the women’s room. I don’t see how this matters after using the bush for a toilet J. And it is a toilet – with a sink and toilet paper –and no mice – just one bug. My standards have clearly altered.

Jean-Pierre returns and looks really angry so we are all concerned. He tells us we are OK – the plane has taken off from Brazzaville and he has our passports and boarding passes. The problem is the military commandeered a bunch of the seats on the in bound flight. So his group of British tourists lost their seats (not clear how –apparently his assistant Frank went to the airport late – but that hardly matters – the military can bounce you even if you are sitting on the plane). He tells us to relax – we will leave at 10 AM.

There is some relief all around – but also worry about the concept of commandeered seats. We take off in the hotel mini-van at 10 AM and are at the airport by 10:10 AM. We go to “the lounge” (some bar with a couple of tables. It is very, very hot. There are bands, folks in traditional dress dancing. Someone important is clearly on the plane. There is an election so maybe the President. Not that it will matter – I am sure the President will win – everything is just too corrupt. I am feeling dizzy – the stress, the heat, who knows, could be a number of things. Akos is occasionally dancing (the man can handle stress amazingly well).

Sanya starts looking at her passport stamps and points out an issue with one of the Central African Republic (or maybe Congo) stamps. The rest of us don’t care – we just want on that flight. But Akos and Jessica go to check it out and everyone starts moving toward the plane so we freak out. Jean Pierre eventually tells them it is not an issue—get to boarding.

We get set for the race to the Air Congo aircraft. People have come out of nowhere and it is hard to tell who is flying and who is saying goodbye (we are just on a field). The dignitaries get off. The ground personnel (hard to tell who IS Air Congo ground personnel and who is there just to get bribes) are keeping people back – but letting some through. We are at the front pushing and eventually make it through. I stand behind Akos – I am getting on that plane. Mark is hanging back – but I figure if I get on Akos and Jessica will get him on somehow – we just have to be on this flight or we will have to wait till Monday – and then the military will be returning so we might miss that. More and more military and VIPs are taken to the front so we are really worried. It is a big aircraft but they tend to leave a bunch of seats empty (probably to collect more bribes by creating a boarding system with no certainty – these folks are sick). Amazingly we see “The Man in the Pink Suit” again – this time there are more important VIPs than he and he gets on later.

Jean-Pierre eventually bribes someone and after a while we all get on (there is no other way). They somehow have more people on board that boarding passes collected so they count and recount and recount. They stop bothering with us – it is clear who we are as we stick out of the crowd and have shown our boarding passes several times. The plane finally takes off – a sigh of relief. An hour flight – we even get a snack (by now we are actually craving airline food).

We get to Brazzaville but get put into a circling pattern. What on earth for – there is hardly any air traffic and the weather is fine. Start to freak out again – cannot imagine an Air Congo boarding again – all the pushing and shoving and bribing. Plus Carl’s admonitions about h=the shoddy safety of African airlines is flashing through my mind – and it is hard to imagine a worse airline than Air Congo. Continue to pray. Finally hear the landing gear come down and we have a very smooth landing. The pilot turns out to be from California – maybe he has committed some crime and is doing community service.

We make it through baggage claim (not too bad – just a few quirks – like a belt that does not work – but no need to pay a bribe to be let out – and no one looks at out stamps for getting back into Congo from Central African Republic). We are a couple of hours late – but fine on time. Off we go back to Saphir Hotel one more (and hopefully LAST) time for showers. Our escape is getting closer ….