Newsletter 2 - 1 June 2005

Hi Everyone!

I have had challenges accessing my Yahoo email account on the (filtered) university system and since I don't have Internet access at home yet, it has prevented me from sending this - and subsequent - newsletter(s). I'm sorry for the delay in getting this to you. FYI, you might expect several newsletters in a row until I'm up to date with the "editions."

The attached "newsletter" is about my experience from the time I left for the airport in Columbia until just before I boarded the flight to Dubai - flights, airports, etc. If you haven't traveled internationally lately, it might be an eye opener.

I'm doing well and getting settled in. I feel very safe and secure at all times. This is a peaceful place with kind, hospitable and friendly people.

Best wishes to you.

Enjoy!

Pat

ca 2:07 pm. My daughter Gina drove me to CAE (Columbia, SC Metro Airport). Jayde, Zane and Kemp rode along. I talked to them about how I had loved living with them and I love them and always will, no matter where we are. I sang each of them their special song (Zane (age 6) – “Mary’s Lullaby:” Kemp (age 3) - “Dare to Do Right:” Jayde (age 8) – “Jadie Sunshine”), then a favorite, “Give, Said the Little Stream.” Then we all sang “I Am a Child of God” (except Zane, who was too sad to sing). I always sang those songs to them at bedtime and that was something we were all going to miss.

Zane showed his sadness by being quiet and “hiding.” He had even stayed in the house while the rest of us went out to the van to go to the airport and Gina, thinking everyone was outside, set the alarm and locked the door. He was retrieved once she realized and then he was silent in the car and even “hid” during part of his special song. Jayde looked sad and Kemp held my hand as long as he could. Once at the airport, I gave each one a special long hug and kisses (one for each year old they are).

I had to take my suitcases in to the airport two at a time by myself. At first I couldn’t locate the Northwest counter (it was hidden by a slew of people checking in and a couple of pillars). I placed the first two suitcases in the ticket line and went outside to get the other two and my shoulder bag. Once I got them and me in line it took only a short time to be waited on. I tried using the Self-Serve Kiosk without success while I waited. When it was my turn, the clerk was helpful but trouble started when she told the charge for my third bag (the “unfree” one; two bags can go free if they do not exceed weight or size limits) would be $80, then amended it to $150 because it was going to an international destination. (Thankfully I will get a shipping allowance from UAEU to cover it!) The process of using my credit card for payment resulted in a long wait. Finally the clerk called someone on the phone and another lengthy wait ensued as they worked through the situation. Finally it was done and she handed me the credit card form to sign while she explained that the system had been trying to charge me $300 and the extra time was spent getting it cleared so I was charged only $150, for which I thanked her.

Next, all three bags that were to be checked were individually opened and hand inspected by an authorized airport employee. When that lengthy process was complete and the airline barcode suitcase tags had been affixed, I handed her my suitcase keys and she locked each lock and placed the luggage on the conveyor belt. I had already been given my boarding passes, payment receipt and luggage receipts so I was free to go to the gate with my wheeled carry-on suitcase and my “purse.”

When I got to airport screening, the person there informed me I’d been selected for “special” screening. (A week or so after I arrived in the UAE another new library hire from the US told me that when he checked in at the airport, the ticket clerk told him “Just to let you know, you are going to be selected for special screening and it’s because you are going to the Middle East, your ticket was purchased within the last week and it was paid for with cash.” I am sure that was why I was screened, too.)

My luggage was taken by a uniformed man named Claude to be searched. I was sent another way to be “scanned.” Another uniformed person a woman, waved a wand over my entire person, then patted me down. The wand beeped over my money belt, secured under my blouse. I had to remove it and she took it to be scanned. It was then placed on a table near me while the process was completed. I “passed” the inspection and the money belt was returned; I was asked if I wanted to go into a private room to put it on and I said yes. She and another woman began to escort me there but a man, obviously their superior, insisted that my escorts retrieve my luggage and take it with me. He insisted I was not to be separated from my luggage at any time but I had already been separated for at least 15 minutes! We went with my luggage into a room the size of a large bathroom stall where there was a bank of walkie-talkies, a chair and a diagonal-to-the-corner partition. I whipped on the money belt under my blouse. Then I and my luggage were escorted to the search tables where my luggage was hand searched while I watched. Finally the process ended and I was free to proceed to the gate with my carryon luggage.

I bypassed the moving sidewalk and instead walked straight to Gate 2 where I sat and reviewed my flight information then realized something I hadn’t taken care of and needed to call Gina about. I went to find a pay phone (I’d suspended service on my cell phone earlier today) but they were all being used so instead I went into the restroom and into a “Handicapped” stall where I divested myself of the money belt, placed the contents elsewhere and shoved the belt into my “purse.” I‘d had it with that thing! I didn’t want to have to go through the same experience at any other airport along the way. Then I went back to the phones and waited for one to become available.

When I could use one, I tried calling Gina to explain but got a busy signal. I hoped to call her during the layover in Detroit but it didn’t happen. I went back to the waiting area. When they began boarding and asked for Platinum members, those with children or needing extra time boarding to begin boarding, I went – thinking I’d need time to shelve my wheeled carryon and my grey hair would qualify me. Instead, the attendant gave me a tag for the suitcase and I had to leave it outside the aircraft door. There’s not enough space on these commuter flights for most carryon luggage and so they put them in a special place during the flight and then place them outside the aircraft door when we reach the destination so we can grab them as we exit. So I got to go right into the aircraft and be seated ahead of the crowd!

The person sitting beside me was a man from Kenya and we had a great conversation. He is an exchange math teacher to an Orangeburg high school. He told me about his first year experience, just ended, and that he has two years left and answered many questions I had about Kenya.

When we arrived in Detroit (the view of Lake Michigan from the air was superb!), I immediately went to the A terminal to find the gate for my next fight. To get there, I had to go through a tunnel that featured, beside the moving walkways, frosted and contoured glass walls that looked like the sky behind which intermittent lights representing flashing lightning. Once in A terminal, I started to look for a phone but stopped to check the departure information screen and saw that my flight was on time and the message “must be on board 30 minutes before takeoff to be seated.” It was about 30 minutes before departure at that moment! I went directly to the gate, which fortunately was nearby, and found they were already boarding. In about 2 minutes, my row number was called and I went aboard – with both my carryons this time. And that’s why I didn’t get to call Gina before I left the country.

On board, I was seated on the aisle in the center section of the Airbus 330, next to two children and their mother, who I guessed were possibly Indian or Pakistani by the way the mother was dressed. During the flight they spoke to each other in English and another language. Each seat was equipped with individual video screens and detachable remote control units located in the arm rests. One could choose to view movies, view maps and information, listen to music or play video games. We were served an in-flight meal. By the time they got to me, the chicken main dish was gone and I was given a vegetarian main dish. It consisted of rice, some sort of beans in a yellow sauce and some bitter tasting greens. It tasted pretty awful but I ate it because I was hungry, choosing to think of it as a cultural experience!

Then the cabin lights were turned off because it was night (we were flying east, approaching the Atlantic Ocean) and I tried to sleep, without much success. Finally, a few hours later, “day” came and breakfast was served – an egg biscuit, diced peaches and yoghurt. I ate the first two and passed on the yogurt. It was then about half an hour before touchdown in Amsterdam and I was able to doze during the descent. The same was true on the first flight and is worth knowing. We arrived in Amsterdam at about 8:35 AM.

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I have a long layover here in Amsterdam but am sitting down to update this and wait until my next flight displays on the departure board so I’ll know which gate to go to. I saw two men dusting the tall green plants in pots around the perimeter of this waiting area. They were using circular fuzzy dusters on sticks that are similar to Gina’s duster and they literally dusted the plants. I think I’ll go find a restroom and brush my teeth, buy some water and find some postcards to buy and send.

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Instead of doing those things, at 9:30-ish, feeling too tired and my luggage feeling too heavy to deal with, I went to sit in the E24 Gate waiting area where my flight to Dubai, UAE, was supposed to depart from and try to get some sleep until boarding for the flight, which is apparently delayed until 15:05 (3:05 PM). At 3:30 I woke up after alternately dozing and sleeping and, disoriented from sleep, panicked thinking I’d missed my flight and then had to go all the way back to the main flight display board to check on the flight because it wasn’t listed on the display at Gate E24. It turned out I’d slept for about 4 hours and during that time, the departure gate had been changed to #19, so I headed there, still fearing I’d missed my flight.

When I got to #19 I saw with relief that, yes, my flight was listed on the display there but no one was manning it, with only ½ hour to departure time. I looked around in the waiting area, keeping my eyes open for someone likely to speak English whom I could ask about the situation. In a sea of dark colored clothing and white business shirts was a woman sitting alone wearing white slacks and a pastel green jacket who looked to be North American or Western European.

I went up to her and asked if she spoke English and she did! She was from Scotland and had traveled from this airport to Dubai before and said she thought the flight was simply late on the other end since there was only a half hour delay, and explained how things worked at that airport and upon arrival in Dubai. A blessing! So now I’m waiting for the flight to be announced. People n the waiting area are starting to look at their watches and some are lining up at the check-in counter. My informant (we never exchanged names) says sometimes luggage is searched at the departure gate – it depends, but no visas are checked, just boarding passes.