The Series: This the first of several posts… you can navigate back to the Intro Page to go to another post. I also linked the next one at the bottom here.
Leaving Luanda
It takes about two and half hours in the air to get to Windhoek from Luanda…. Funny enough, it takes three or more hours of trudging through what is the Luanda airport before one actually gets to take off. Until you experience the Quatro de Fevereiro yourself, you have not lived. Any airport hassles you've considered treacherous are completely normal here in Luanda. The good part about this is that when I go to other countries, I'm always pleasantly surprised that they even are so kind as to TELL you your flight is delayed. What a considerate thing to do. And they are reasonably glad to let you out of the country without much question, which makes customs a bit of a breeze. Lowered expectations are sometimes a good thing!
You Poor Soul… You thought there was an organized structure to all this!!!
One way to kill time while in line (which one is for most of the time one is in the airport) is by watching people who haven't left Luanda before standing in the estrangeiros (expat) customs line to depart. I feel for them. It's a story of unknowns. Generally they start by sizing up the line (the third one they've been in since arriving at the airport and moving the slowest). Then they start measuring the speed with which that line is moving. Then they look at their ticket's boarding time, then their watch, and they quickly do the math. In their minds, and in any other airport, they're done for; the plane would be rolling off the tarmac. Queuing theory is a bit of a mean game, and it doesn't account for Luanda.
These poor people start to look around, start to befriend strangers "what flight are you on?" "can you believe this?" "why is the line for Angolans going faster?" They start to bond a little in their collective concern all the while thinking "Was three hours of pre-departure time not enough? How could that be? The ticket line didn't open until an hour ago, and now they want me on the plane with this line up in between me and the gates? This is so broken!" Yes. It is. Sort of.
The line continues to move at a glacial pace, and with all the air conditioning of a steam room being available, someone gets a little too antsy. It might be because this is the most queuing that this person has done in years. It might be that because there hasn't been any rhyme or reason to the system thus far, that they have little confidence that anything will work in a process-driven manner, and it might just be that they can't fathom why exiting a country requires that everyone have a lengthy engagement with customs.
And so it goes something like this: with a sweaty brow and ever-dampening shirt, bags awkwardly in hand, papers in tow, to complete strangers the poor guy offers up "I'm on the flight to Joburg, and it's boarding; can I go in front of you?" Much to their chagrin, the answer is generally no…. not because people are inconsiderate, but because "we're on the Joburg flight too; it's not leaving without the 15 of us that are in line." And sure enough, when you're certain your flight has doors closed and the plane is rolling out to the runway, someone says "all people to Johannesburg, please come to the front of the line." And you zip through and hop on your plane. Organized chaos. It works; it's just not pretty.
What About Us?
In our case, we got through customs in time to get to our gate and sit around for another hour and a half without anyone explaining why our flight was delayed. We realized that six families were traveling together and were letting their kids (all under 5, and on average 2 per family) get every ounce of energy out BEFORE the flight took off. Birth control for Paul and me.
Our biggest fear was that TAAG, the national airline that we took (once and not again), would cancel the flight, which they are wont to do. But no; we all boarded in a reasonable way after the delay, and off we went to Windhoek.
Landing in Namibia
When we arrived we got to customs and both of us pulled a "do we need a visa for this place?" Oops. Probably should have looked into that. I'm not sure why we didn't other than we hadn't heard any horror stories about it, so we must have just let it slip our minds. Good news is you don't need a visa. But what in the world were we thinking?!
When everyone rushed customs line still filling out their papers, the customs officer yelled out "Please! Those of you who have NOT filled out your customs form in entirety, please step out of line to let those who have pass. It is not fair to get in line before you are ready." Wow. Order! Click your heels KC - you aren't in Luanda anymore!
Next up - The Driver, The Navigator, and The Historian - Why is Fidel Castro's Name on That Street Sign?
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