| Submitted by: David Pugh, United States |
| Submission Date: 27 November 2007 |
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Our kilo of pork arrived, along with yet another relative, this one belonged to the Tourist police, and from my experience he’d be the same as the bumsters, he was paid to keep off the beach, and would be only interested in emptying my pockets. He seemed rather hostile towards tourists and tried catching me out on Jola culture, I had never expressed I was an expert; in fact one of my reasons for being here was to learn a lot more of my friend’s way of life. When the pork was finished and I had bought him another Julbrew, he lost interest in cultural matters and went back to concentrating on the TV soap. The rest of the evening disappeared in more Guinness and Julbrew “Crocodile” export beer.
I got up early the next morning and left my bag packed in the Suma room, I’d arranged with Moudu to take me back to the airport and to meet me at “Nature”. When I arrived at “Nature” there was no one around, I’d spotted a fruit seller at the Police Station crossroads, so went to get some breakfast. The very nice lady had a spare chair and she cut open a mango for me, which I had to eat from her lap, very sensual. I got to “Nature” in time to see Lucas arrive; he had given himself the morning off and asked if I’d like couscous. The couscous turned out to be sweet corn, roasted on the open fire, very nice and quite a crowd had gathered to share this free breakfast, palm wine and ganja were passed around as I said my goodbyes.
I put my travel alarm on the table and when I thought it was time to head back to the Suma and the airport, I asked Moudu to get his car. I was a little concerned as he’d drunk a lot of palm wine and had smoked a lot of ganja. When he returned with his 4x4 he was still smoking the stuff at the wheel. After picking up my bag from the Suma, we stopped at Pappy’s to buy some pre-packed rolls, meat ones for my lunch and prawn for my evening meal. When we got to the airport, we parked in the security police car park, joked around with some of the security who were regulars at “Nature” and went in through those doors marked, “For authorised personnel only,” with the big, “NO ENTRY” symbol. We went into Mr. Tallo’s office, I swear he was rolling a joint, whatever it was went into the draw and he welcomed us to stay in his air-conditioned office until my plane left. I thanked him very much but pointed out that I should really check in first. “Ah, yes! Come with me,” he said and lead me to the shortest check-in desk queue, which clearly said, “FOR BOARDING PASS HOLDERS ONLY”. I pointed this out but Mr.T said there would be no problem. When we reached the desk the check-in clerk asked for my boarding pass, Mr. Tallo said that I was a personal friend of his and didn’t need such formalities. The clerk told him that everyone needs a boarding pass and Mr.T told me to give him mine! I just about kept my cool and pointed out that I had to check in first to get one. Mr. Tallo suggested that I should get into the queue he’d originally pulled me out of and I had to wait like everyone else. When my bag had gone through and I had my boarding pass he led me back to his office where Lucas was still waiting. I was more than a bit tense by now; I really didn’t want this priority treatment and said I’d be happier to go through security and wait on the sun terrace, eating my lunch. Mr. T said I could eat my lunch in his office; I had brought two bottles of Guinness with me, in case there was a delay. As the flight was only running ten minutes late, I thought we could drink them now, I apologised that I had only two bottles as I handed one to Lucas. I said to Mr. Tallo that he probably couldn’t drink on duty, Lucas said that was correct but I should give Mr.T 100 Dalasi to have a drink later, in recognition for my priority treatment. He thanked me very much and said that he should now go and supervise the arriving passengers, as they had already picked up their luggage from the plane that was to fly me back.
According to my estimate, I now only had fifteen minutes before my flight with its new crew, started boarding and I’d remembered that I hadn’t filled in an embarkation card. I told Lucas that I really should go through security now, as we’d said all that there was to say. I was the last passenger to go through the security check and there were three officials there to help me through. They pulled out all the contents of my army bag and threw them in different directions, for each of them to inspect in detail. They looked at my 35mm camera and decided that I must be a photo journalist! At the bottom of my bag they found prohibited material, three kernels of sweet corn, which they picked out as if they contained the Ebola virus. One asked me why I was carrying so much food, two prawn rolls in a cool bag and one meat roll left from lunch, and he then decided that the three rolls would be better if they were all in the cool bag. I said that I had a six hour flight, followed by a four drive before I got home and couldn’t afford the overpriced airline meals. The guy who had checked my passport then said that I’d probably be buying lots of the airline’s beer to wash down my rolls. I joked that they were also too expensive for me and longed for the days when you could take some bottles of Julbrew aboard. He then began lecturing me on taking bottles on board, apparently this was nothing to do about mixing liquid explosives; no people like me could smash Julbrew bottles and hold them to the throat of the pilot. I’d had enough, so much for priority treatment; the security officials repacked my bag and wished me a good flight. When I finally got on board, I pulled out my lunch bag and was about to put the army bag into the overhead locker when I spotted the black leather knick-knack bag was missing! I played a flashback in my mind and saw the black bag flying through the air to the guy sitting behind the monitor to check in detail. Some pens, my new LED torch, an unused film, some ear plugs, a key and my father’s watch were staying in Africa forever! |
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| Copyright © - "David Pugh" |
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