Sunday, January 18, 2015

Several arrivals in Africa

    The long flight from Dubai was somewhat disappointing.  One time when I flew across the Sahara, I was treated to seemingly  infinite  vistas of desert that I found mesmerizing.  I had great hopes  for the downward  pointing camera the plane  was  equpped with.  But it was hazy the entire trip, and we saw nothing, not even Mount 
Kilimanjaro, which we passed quite near to.
       Our plane landed in Lukasa, the Capitol of Zambia.  MBG  was wild to set foot on Zambian soil--who wouldn't be after all that sitting--but we weren't  permitted  off  the  plane.  And soon enough we took off again for by far the shortest leg of our  journey, the final leg to Harare.
       We landed right on time and passed into a small but modern  terminal, where a woman  holding a little  handheld  device rather  like a small flashlight  up to a couple of inches  from our  foreheads.  I had no idea that body temperatures could be  detected  from  that distance, but apparently  so.  That is a crucial  part of Zimbabwe's Ebola prevention  program, which so far has a 100% success  rate.  Take that, U.S.!
          Surprisingly  enough, neither  of  us  were  feverish  and so we were permitted to buy  our visas and enter the country.  While  in line,  we had an ever-so-interesting   conversation  with a woman who had been born  in  Zimbabwe  but had emigrated   to England  nine years ago.  This was to be her first trip back, and she was nervous and hopeful.
       We found Dairai, the driver sent by our lodgings, in the terminal,and he cheerfully  greeted us and drove us through the REMARKABLY potholed roads of Harare.
       Soon we pulled into the walled enclosure  of Kutandara  Lodge, our home  for  the  next  couple  of  days.  A fabulous oasis of calm and beauty in the rough-and-tumble
 chaos that is Harare.



1 comment:

  1. The Lodge looks very inviting. Hope it was/is comfortable. Now the Packer fan can keep the Viking fan in good company since you both support losing teams this year. :)

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