Sunday, August 1, 2010

We have arrived in Malawi!

Amazing!  So blessed to have returned to this country again!!  It wasn't without trials, but all that is behind us and we are here!!

A snap shot on our journey here.  We left Thunder Bay airport Wednesday night the 28th at 7:20 p.m.  All went without a hitch.  Flight to Toronto was uneventful and so was our 2 hour airport layover.  We left Toronto around 11:35 to fly to London, England.

We arrived in London in the morning and took the tube into central London and spent about 3 hours walking around checking things out and riding the London Eye.  We then took the tube back to the airport and I pulled out my boarding pass to see which Terminal our flight was leaving from.  UNKNOWING, THIS IS WHEN EVERYTHING WENT SOUTH AND QUICKLY!!!  UGH!!!

There was no terminal printed on our boarding passes, this quite often means you are leaving from the same terminal as you arrived at.  So, we went back to terminal 3 and saw that the Nairobi flight was departing from Lobby A.  We decided to clear security right away so we could have a bite to eat before our flight left at 8:00 p.m.

We passed through security and showed our passports AND BOARDING PASSES to three different airport staff and were cleared for our flight and wished a pleasant journey.  Once thru security I check to see what gate our flight was leaving from, it wasn't listed yet and showed that our flight now did not depart until 9:00 p.m.  I didn't find this odd as flights are delayed quite often.

We went and ate and around 7:00 p.m. decided to check out some duty free shops.  Upon purchasing Janika's pillow the store clerk who needed my boarding pass for the transaction, gave me a really odd look when I handed over my boarding pass, but he did not say anything.   So I paid for her pillow and off we went.

We went to sit by the monitors so we can wait for our gate to come up.  As we were sitting there, I started to feel really uncomfortable about the flight.  I decided to get a closer look at the monitors, no info change.  I went and sat back down.  The feeling kept getting worse and at about 7:15 I decided to pull out the itinerary that the Thunder Bay agent said I didn't need because everything is electronic, but I of course kept it so I can scrapbook it later!!

I read on that itinerary that our flight was leaving from TERMINAL 4!!  AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!  Talk about instant panic!  I told the kids and Hannah to pack up and run!  We ran to a help desk and they confirmed we were in the wrong terminal and couldn't believe that security had cleared us!!  We had to get from one end of Terminal 3 to the other to catch a bus to Terminal 4.  We arrived at the bus pick up location at around 7:25.  The bus was there but wouldn't allow us to board!!   They were on the other side of a glass so they couldn't hear our exclamations!  We were in major panic and tears!  And then he left............

Another bus arrived a few minutes later and parked outside.  The driver was talking to somebody and I was frantically waving out the window and pointing to my watch (well Pirkko's, but that's a different story) and he just kept calming putting out his hand saying hang on!  We kept waving and what seemed about forever, he finally let us board.  I explained to him that our flight left at 8:00 p.m. and we were in a hurry.  He asked you have to board at 8?  I yelled NOOO, our flight leaves at 8, we have 20 minutes to be on that plane!!  Well, he took off like a shotgun!  We were stripping off belts, sweaters, socks etc so we would be ready to clear security AGAIN! What a site we must have been!!  He drove so fast we were stumbling all over!

We arrived at security at about 8:47ish and must have cleared in about a minute or less!  We were pro's at this now!!

We located a monitor and our gate?  WAY ACROSS THE AIRPORT!!  I told Jaako and Hannah to take off and run to the gate and Janika and I would follow.  Due to a poor knee surgery, I can't run, so I walked very, very fast!  Jaako being the awesome son that he is also took my pac and the laptop that we didn't pack up after security and began to run.  I told Jaako not to separate from Hannah!  So they took off!

As Janika is running, and I am walking very, very fast we start hearing announcements, "Would the Polkki family and Wilson family please board the aircraft at gate 8.  We kept hearing the page.  Then it got worse we  heard "Would Polkki and Wilson please come to the gate right now!  You are delaying your plane!!"  A few seconds later, "Polkki and Wilson,  your luggage is being removed from the plane so that the flight can depart!"  I'm thinking oh crap Jaako and Hannah hadn't made it!  And I'm yelling, no don't we're coming!!  At this point I see Hannah just ahead of us and Jaako is nowhere to be seen!

Jaako decided to run ahead once Hannah grew tired.  Although he didnt listen to me, I have to admit he made the right decision, Jaako saved our day!!  He was just running up to the gate when that final announcement was given.  If he had listened to me, we would have certainly missed our flight. With a plea full of emotion he explained what had happened and explained how I couldn't run!  At this point I sent Janika running as well, I figured the more of us that showed up, the more likely they would be to hold the plane!

I then got there and the staff were very understanding and we boarded our flight! The time was 8:00 p.m. on the nose!  How had we run clear across two terminals, taken a bus ride and cleared security and arrived at our gate all in 35 minutes???  A miracle!  We couldn't believe it!  We were so shocked that we had made it.

As we boarded the aircraft all the passengers were glaring at us and when we sat down, some guys said with a laugh "So you must be the Polkki's and the Wilsons!!"  We all cracked up!  They announced to the whole flight that we were holding them up!  The worst part?  Once we boarded, the plane didn't move anywhere for about 15 minutes!!  What the heck?!?!?!

But anyway, we were on our flight, high fiving each other for making it and probably annoying everybody even more!!  Ha ha ha

We arrived in Nairobi at 6:30 a.m. and had major flight delays.  We were exhausted and just wanted to get to Malawi!!  We finally left and arrived in Malawi quite late, but we cleared customs wonderfully and we were in Malawi.  Our second home!

What a feeling to just walk out of the airport and smell the air that I love to breath and see the smiling faces of my friends!  This is always one of my favourite moments.  My lungs just fill with Malawian air and my heart soars to be here once again.  I can't describe the feeling, but it's a great one.

I will write more tomorrow about our days here. That is if we have power.  We have had black outs every evening here so far.  Tonight the power came back on early enough for all of us to blog.

So until tomorrow..............................................

Sue

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