Not me. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon! But we had two people who were trying to leave here to go back to their respective places. So far, only one has made it out! One was supposed to check in around 9:30am this morning, so we took her to the airport... and brought her back again. Her flight was delayed by several hours, so after she got all checked in and handed over her luggage, she came back to the compound! Since the bathrooms at that airport are nothing to brag about, nor is there anything that even resembles a "food court", it's not such a nice place to sit for several hours while you wait for a delayed plane!
Anyway, it just so happened that she had to go back to the airport just about the time that our second traveller needed to check-in. So off we went to the airport again. This time, traveller one was able to just walk right in through the security section and go and wait for her plane. Traveller two had no problems checking in and getting her luggage through "security" (where they peek into a corner of your bag!). And she went through the security to go and sit in the "departures" lounge (I must say, I miss the days when you could just sit in the departures area with your departing people!). Anyways, she went in and got frisked by the woman (ain't no electronic scanning equipment here!), and I departed.
A couple of hours later, I got a phone call. Her plane was cancelled, so could I please come and pick her up from the airport! By this time, it was after 4pm, and planes can't land in this airport when it's approaching dusk - there are no lights on the runway! So they will try to leave again tomorrow morning, first thing.
So we were 1 for 2 today in the leaving department!
I also went to a fun little shindig tonight. It wasn't at all my usual crowd - this was the UN crowd. Some folks that I know from our work with the Ministry of Education are leaving, so we got invited to their farewell. And it was quite nice. There's always a bit of awkward small talk with the occassional unknown person (and everyone there was unknown to me!), but I soon ended up talking to a really interesting woman who has lived all over before settling back here, where her parents are from, though she hasn't really lived here. She's also married to an American. So it was really interesting to talk to her about languages and culture, and growing up in a third culture, and cross-cultural marriages etc. She was really easy to talk to and really has had a fascinating life!
However, Jackie and I don't like being out late, so we were some of the first to leave - people were still just coming in the gate as we were leaving! Does that mean I'm getting old, or what?!
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