21st of January, 2018.
The new airport of Dakar is beautiful. But the people who built had no idea about quantity of travelers by day and hour. The “waiting room” is a small place, in front of the only Coffee / shop available before you be able to get into the airport (what you can do just over two hours before your flight), with capacity of 100 people sitting maximum. And that to be really optimistic. So it is not like the other airports where I have been so far (Curitiba, Sao Paulo, London, Barcelona, Seville), where before you cross the boarding area, you have the whole airport available for you. No, not in Dakar. There you have this small sitting area, in a long but thin space across the airport, where you wait until when is missing two hours to your flight. Then you go to the checking area (a further simple way to do it than in other airports mentioned above) and after that you go to the boarding area. Why to complicate that much people?
My flight is programmed to 16h20min. Around one o’clock I started to eat my potatoes with green beans. I know it is healthy but looking to all those bakery stuff at the Coffee shop, looking so delicious, I am eating a little sad. Fuck you Capitalism! I am a food lover. If there is something that makes me upset for still be a little on the System is the food.
I am waiting to somebody appears at the bank and I could exchange my Euros, Dihrans and Francs into Dollars, so I can pay my Visa at Entebbe’s Airport. Nobody is coming and it was almost two o’clock. I ask around and the bank is closed because it is Sunday. Right, because people do not travel on Sundays? I know it is a bank, but hello! It is a bank in an airport! “Try the other floor” – a guard says. “There is another bank there and maybe they are opened”. They are not. At least I do not see. Someone come to ask if I need help. After I explain my situation, the girl calls a guy. After I explain my situation, the guy is almost exchanging my money when he realizes I do not need a taxi so the Dollars are not going to them (a taxi company), so he just say not to be able to help me anymore. I walk until the information point. After I explain everything again and they say they would call somebody, they just answer not be able to help me. That is it? I know that the airport is just working for over one month now, but what a hell, man? This suppose to be the trained people you have it? This suppose to be the people you were preparing to the big opening stuff?
I do the only thing it crosses my mind: try to find someone on the small waiting room who have some Dollars but also need Euros. Who would be them? European people who are going to travel around Africa. I walk to those two white girls and we start to talk. They are from Germany and were learning French in Senegal. At the moment, they are going to visit some friends nearby. They accept to exchange just one hundred Dollars. My only concern it is if, since the beginning of the 2018, the East Africa Tourist Visa had the price increased. But the girls could not exchange more.
At the boarding area, I could see the guys who “take care” of the luggage… Such a jerk people! Why they have to throw the bags like that? It is a volunteer work? You are not getting paying for it? If the payment is not good: Is the passengers fault? Or you just think that all people who travel by plane are rich? Or the job is too hard and sucks? (nope).
I forget that the hand bag space on the plane is not that compatible with the number of the passengers and I do not go to the boarding line earlier. Which is stupid!
I take my seat at the window; having two hot meals (pasta with eggplant sauce first and whole grain rice with some really good tomato sauce, both plus bread, butter, small cake, salad and fruit salad and plus Heineken and white wine); watching some nice movies (The Devils wears Prada and Fight Club and I am Legend); and having nobody sitting beside me, made this flight the best one until now (hopefully the best one ever since I do not want to take another flight again).
Over one hour before the landing in Nairobi, I see a light outside. At the beginning I do not know for sure if it is from the plane or what. Looking carefully I realize it is a lighting. A lot of them are coming at some point in the horizon. They are kind of far way but the plane had some turbulence before so I am just hoping for the best. It is crazy how something I used to love and watch back in Brazil from the ground, it become scary, for those ten minutes while I was watching then from the space. I even put my boots back. I know it will sound kind of obviously but nothing happened.
The connection in Nairobi it is really simple and I do not even have to do anything but show them my boarding pass. Those two seats space are bigger and I am just waiting for the breakfast. Unfortunately it is not enough to my hunger an yoghurt with a small croissant and drink. I am stupid enough to get ashamed of asking for another croissant or even one more yoghurt. They overcharged the tickets a lot for sure! How can I keep being so dumb ain’t asking for more food?
In less than one hour we land Entebbe.