«Air Afrique»
My first encounter with «AIR AFRIQUE» - who manage Niamey airport - but fortunately I have Kossi with me. Kossi handles all the SIM travel arrangements, has airport clearance and clearly is well thought of and liked around here. The flight leaves tonight, well tomorrow at 00:30. Even so we come up for check-in around 4pm and what I witness doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
While Kossi goes to attend to other business I sit watching the organisation of the baggage as it is transferred wherever it is transferred to pending the arrival of the flight this evening. There is a great deal of noise, raised voices, worried faces (and I don't include my own in that statement). Men disappear through a flap hatch on the conveyor belt system with the baggage. Men reappear through the hatch scrambling over the top of oncoming baggage. More men jump on the conveyor belt with labels of some kind in their hands which evidently should have been attached to baggage that has already disappeared through the hatch.
Suddenly everything goes quiet, the lights flicker, the air conditioning whirrs to a halt. The electrical power has gone. Kossi, where are you?! Hopefully in the next eight hours we'll get power restored and the baggage sorted, though I suspect it will take every minute of the time available.
While I'm sitting in the check-in lounge I have mixed feelings about going home. It's strange how you can become attached to a place in a short time. It's strange how everything can look from a distance. I am going to leave behind four weeks of unbroken sunshine, wonderful hospitality, fantastic fruit and very cheap living and return to civilization, sophisticated Northern Ireland. (Ah, the power is back on and the air conditioning is working again!) So, to what am I going back? To freezing temperatures, to widespread disease (the foot and mouth epidemic), to political instability and the impending nasty sectarianism that will be resurrected at Easter with the Republican and Orange marches. So who's civilized? Still, there's Uganda to look forward to in eight weeks’ time!