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Our original plan for January of 2009 was to visit Egypt and Jordan with National Geographic Adventures. We signed up and paid our deposit a year in advance, but were told by Abercrombie and Kent (who run this tour for National Geographic) that only one other person had signed up for this departure, and a minimum amount of travelers were necessary in order for the trip to proceed as scheduled. They told us that their Egypt trips typically sell well, and that they had never had to cancel a trip before. But as time passed and they still had no new sign-ups, we began to worry. If the trip did get cancelled, what then? We had this trip planned in our minds for a long time.
We didn't buy our flights yet, just in case. We asked Abercrombie and Kent when they would know if the trip would be cancelled, and they were vague about it. In the meantime, I looked at the Adventures in Rock web site. We had heard about this local company who planned music-themed trips years ago, and had been interested in several of their trips in the past. Now I saw that they were offering a trip to the annual Festival Au Desert in Mali, a prestigious world music festival in the Sahara Desert. We were familiar with the festival, and had watched a DVD of the performance from several years ago, where Robert Plant had attended and performed with Malian musicians. This particular trip was a joint venture between Adventures in Rock and Women Worldwide, a philanthropic organization which deals with development projects to benefit women around the world. As a result, it also included some volunteer work coordinated by the Tandana Foundation in a Dogon village, planting a garden to benefit a school. This whole trip seemed right up our alley - combining our interest in music with our desire to do community service work. It was basically the same dates as the Egypt trip, and we wondered if we should instead be doing this trip, as Egypt seemed to be becoming problematic. Craig contacted Pam, the head of Adventures in Rock, and asked a few questions about the trip. He told her our situation, and we decided to let fate determine our course. If the Egypt trip continued as planned, we would buy our flights to Egypt. But if the Egypt trip was cancelled, we would go to Mali instead. In due time, the Egypt trip was indeed cancelled. We contacted Pam immediately and told her to sign us up for Mali! We were very excited. Although we still want to go to Egypt and Jordan some day, it seemed that the Mali trip was meant to be, while the Egypt trip was not, at least not at this particular time. It turned out that there were only five of us signed up for the Mali trip, less than the amount necessary to make it financially viable. Craig and I would be traveling with Pam (from the Boston area), her friend Tina (founder of Women Worldwide, from Austin), and Susan from Seattle. We desperately wanted to go despite the small group size, so we paid a small group surcharge, and the trip was able to proceed. As usual, we visited the Lahey Travel Clinic to make sure that we were up-to-date on all of our necessary vaccinations. Our yellow fever shots were still valid, but Dr. Ooi gave us a typhoid vaccine (which you need to re-up every two years) and a meningitis vaccine (which we had never received before). She also gave us a prescription for malarone as an anti-malarial. |
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The forecast for today has been "Snow 7 am to 7 pm, 6 to 8 inches," and I have been worried about it for the past 2 days. We decided to work at home today in order to remove a round-trip ride to work from the equation. At 12:50 pm, Steve drove us to Logan Express in hopes of catching the 1:15 bus to the airport for our 5:30 flight to Paris. At 1:20 or so, when it became apparent that the bus was running late due to the weather, we sent Steve home while the roads were still passable. We went inside and waited in the waiting room with some Jet Blue employees on their way to work. At quarter of two, the bus arrived. Walking from the waiting room out to the bus, we were instantly covered in a layer of snow. The snow was really piling up, and we were glad that we had left plenty of time for the ride.
We were glad that we were not driving in this weather. A stereotypical west coast surfer dude was sitting behind us, talking on his cell phone about his latest real estate get rich quick opportunity. After the call had gone on for a few minutes, the rather crotchedy old bus driver barked at him while pointing at the sign asking passengers to refrain from using cell phones. "Passengers don't typically want to feel like they're in a phone booth!" he snarled. Typically, I am bnot a fan of listening to other people's cell phone conversations, but in this case it seemed a bit harsh. It was going to be a long slow ride, and if the guy wanted to talk on his cell phone, there was no real harm. The guy ended his call and said to the general populace "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend anyone." We all mumbled that it wasn't a problem, and then sat in an awkward silence for thr remainder of the ride. We got to Terminal E at 2:45 and checked in at the Air France counter. The women were saying something about connecting flights and Bangor, Maine, but we didn't understand the significance, and they told us that our flight was on time thus far. We went through security (there was absolutely no line) and we were at Gate 6 by 3 o'clock. The board now said that our flight was "delayed," but we had no further information. There weren't many choices for a quick bite to eat, so we chose Sbarro's and got some roast beef sandwiches. We sat next to an iPod vending machine (a Best Buy kiosk where you insert your credit card and it then dispenses the electronics equipment of your choice). Our 5:30 flight was now listed as 6:20. We were on the lookout for Pam from Adventures in Rock, who would be on the same flight with us. She found us and we started chatting and getting to know one another. The flight was changed to 7:30 now. They announced that the plane hadn't even arrived in Boston yet; it had been diverted to Bangor to refuel. They were fairly certain that it would arrive soon, but looking out the windows at the steadily accumulating snow, we weren't so sure. They readjusted the take-off estimate to 9:15, and then they decided they really had no idea, and stopped giving any updates. The gate was then moved and there were no seats for us down at the new gate. But there was a Houlihan's restaurant near that gate, so we sat there in full earshot and view of the gate and shared some chicken chipotle nachos and beverages. They announced that the plane had finally arrived but a complication arose with the plane after it left Bangor which they needed to investigate. It seemed like it was just one thing after another, and we wondered if we would ever make it to Paris, let alone Mali. Finally everything was all set and we boarded and took off at around 11 pm, 5 1/2 hours late. Luckily, we had a long enough layover in Paris that this shouldn't affect our connection to Bamako. The plane was a 747 and we had the jump seats behind us so our seats didn't recline at all. We wished each other a happy New Year when whatever time zone we happened to be in hit midnight, and I commemorated the event with a photo. The last time we had rung in the new year on a plane had been when we were on our way to Chile at the dawn of 2005. We were given little packets which contained headphones, earplugs, eyeshades, and small toiletries. We were given a menu designed to look like a vintage postcard. Craig opted for breast of chicken with paprika accompanied by Lyonnaise potatoes and French green beans, while I ordered cheese ravioli with basil sauce. Both were served with a middle Eastern shrimp salad, baguette, cheese, coffee chocolate chip cake, a piece of chocolate, and pudding. The food was tasty and the flight attendants were extremely polite and attentive. Craig had a complimentary Heineken, and I had a 7 Up. All we had wanted to do was to sleep, but it was very warm and we felt squished in, and the discomfort wasn't conducive to sleep. It was a long night. |
   Air France Menu |
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