The airport and indian ajamas
Trip Start
Sep 14, 2007
1
39
Trip End
Ongoing
Johannesburg,
South Africa
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Anyways, we stopped off in Nairobi and so we eventually found her and carted her around the airport with us. Taking her to the toilet and getting her some water. All the time she would just cling to our arms and smile up at us then pat us on the hand.
We then got our connecting flight to Johannesburg, got her to her seat and settled in. At the other end they had issues with her visa but eventually let her through
01 - the wee lady
. Only to discover they hadn't transferred our luggage from Nairobi!!! We were booked on a bus leaving the next morning at 7am - we were told our luggage would be there by midnight. This was fun to try and tell her. Anyways, luckily we knew what her bag looked like as we had checked her in at the start - so we spent about an hour filling out all her forms which she signed with her thumb print as she can't read or write. By this time the poor wee thing is crying!!! She was so brave to travel so far all alone!! We managed to find her family outside who were waiting on her and explain the situation to them. And off she toddled, exhausted.
One lady we'd met on the flight had managed to communicate with the wee Indian lady - she'd asked why she was going to South Africa and the wee lady had replied 'Because my husband died and I want to see the world!!' Amazing. She looked about 90, but we checked in her passport and she was only 64. Haha!!
Anyways, got to our hostel in Jo'burg where the guy said to us 'Did you hear the gunshots earlier? The police don't even come around anymore it's so frequent'. Lovely!!! Anyways, the hostel was lovely and in safe grounds
02 - wee cutey
. We booked a taxi for 6am in the hope of getting to the airport, collect our luggage then run for the bus. At 6am the taxi never came. At 6.10am there was still no taxi. So we called him. His phone was off. Great! We found the number of another taxi man - but he was too far away to get us in time. But he said he had a friend so to call him. We called his friend who said he couldn't do it either, but he'd call his friend and ask. So 5 mins later he called back and said he couldn't do it but here's the number of someone else. By this time we had to waken the hostel owner up (who'd been up most of the night with her sick baby) and she said she couldn't take us but she'd go waken her husband up. On her way she met a girl who'd been partying at the hostel the night before and asked her to take us. It was 6.25 and the girl needed to be back at the hostel to go on a tour at 7am. She said she'd take us.
So we jumped into her old beetle and drove off at great speeds ripping down the road. I thought 'Oh well. This is it. I'm going to die. Not because I was shot but because this 200000 year old car is going to stop working and go screaming off the road'. She needed to stop for petrol, but it was 'too dangerous this time in the morning'. Honestly - why would anyone live there?!
Anyways, we screeched into the airport, got our luggage (completely surprised it had turned up when they said it would!) and ran along to get our bus. We got on the bus and began our 7 hour trip down to Pietermaritzburg.
