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Tuesday, August 1, 1978, 1:00 pm, Day 917
Well, the tank cover slab is finished. (Diana didn't help.) We left the next day for Koidu, and then the day after, yesterday, we came on down to Freetown. Coming to Freetown, we took the "comfort" bus, the small, private buses that are here. Because they pack the people in so tight, I decided to pay for 3 places for just Diana and I. That was in the front seat, so it was just us two plus the driver. In the seats behind us, the people were packed in 6 across. The ride wasn't too bad, as far as we were concerned.
Today, at the Peace Corps office, I found out that my 1/3 readjustment allowance check had been processed in Washington DC, and that it was in the mail. So far, it still hasn't arrived. I then went over to Yazbeck Travel Agency to tell them what the situation was. I found out that the plane tickets have been made up already, and are just waiting for payment from me. He said that he could give me the tickets, but that he would want to see at least a portion of the ticket cost in cash first. He agreed upon my having my next monthly living allowance check transferred over to him. Since the tickets are ready and waiting, I decided to wait first before I picked them up. This is in the hope that my money will arrive in these next few days.
Wednesday, August 2, 1978, 10:00 am, Day 918
Diana and I went through a bit of palaver yesterday.
Thursday, August 3, 1978, 5:00 pm, Day 919
Today we fly out. (Hopefully.) I think that we have everything that we need, and I just finished packing our bags for the final time. We are scheduled to leave the house in about 20 minutes. Diana is asleep at the moment, and so I wanted to take this last chance to write a bit.
This travel business is really getting to me. I can't help being overly worried and nervous. Everyone gets on my nerves, and I get on everybody else's. That was the reason for Diana and I's small palaver. We got everything all smoothed out by last night, and then today has been better than yesterday, but still -
I have been overly worried about missing the plane or running out of money. If I had it my way, we would have been out at the airport this morning, it seems, and not have bought anything all day. Therefore, I found myself getting irritable at Diana when she had some things that she wanted to do today. Also, if she bought one beer even, I couldn't help feeling that she was using money that was needed somewhere else.
I hope that I will be able to relax, finally, when we get to the airport, and get ourselves processed into the system. Probably, though, I will just about "have a cow" at each airport and airplane transfer that we make. I have this phobia about missing my plane or losing my luggage or passport, etc. I will sure be glad when this is all over.
Thursday, August 3, 1978, 11:00 pm, Day 919
We are at the Freetown airport now. We went to the Paramount Hotel to meet the airport bus, which was to leave at 7:00 PM. There, we found out that our plane to Monrovia was delayed by 3 hours. At the hotel, we met Tom Johnson and Bill Fellows, two fellow volunteers. Tom is flying out on the same plane as us, and Bill was there to see him off. We waited for about 1.5 hours there. Then we decided to not wait for the airport bus, but just to take a taxi out to the airport one time. That is where we are now.
The airport is slow now. No planes are here. We've been waiting quite a while here. So far, there is no plane. Also, the airport bus still hasn't arrived yet. If the plane is delayed by 3 hours, then it won't be leaving until 1:00 AM. It is very possible that we might miss our connection in Monrovia, and end up having to spend the night there.
We met Diana's brother and sister on the far landing of the ferry while we were on our way to the airport. They will stay here to see us off, and get a ride back into town on the airport bus.
Saturday, August 5, 1978, 6:00 am, Day 921
We did miss our connecting flight in Monrovia. It left at about 12:30 and we didn't arrive until about 3:00 am. I can't complain too much though. There were ten of us passengers affected. The airline put us up for the night and day at the hotel near the airport. This hotel is quite the quality job, being better than the one's in Sierra Leone, even. Diana's and my room cost $30, and the three meals that we had probably added up to about $30 more. The airline paid for all of it, for all ten of us. I figure that they ended up spending about 30 to 40 dollars each on us, to put us up for the one night and day, because of the fact that their plane was late, which resulted in all of us missing our connection.
The flight from Freetown to Monrovia is such a short one that I figure that its share of the cost of the total flight price can't be very much. Therefore, I think that they lost money on us that time.
The next flight out from Monrovia to New York was not to be until 12:30 at night, so we had a whole day to relax. Alot of the day we spent sleeping, and so we were good and refreshed by the time it came to go.
We are on the plane now. It is a Nigerian Airways DC-10. It's big! There are nine (9) seats across. Diana has a window seat and I am next to her. The sun has just at this moment come up above the horizon. It is just behind the wing on our side of the plane. We are just above the wing, so we can't look straight down, but we can look a little forward and then down, so we still get a good view.
Saturday, August 5, 1978, 10:00 am, Day 921
We are now in route to San Francisco. I am amazed at how smoothly we were able to get through JFK International Airport in New York. We got off the plane, picked up our luggage, and went through customs, all in normal time. We were done by ten minutes to eight this morning.
The next step was to see about getting us to San Francisco. I found a booth that said American Airlines on it. That was the airline that we were scheduled to take yesterday. All that was there was a telephone and a sign saying to call a certain number for reservations, etc. The number had 12 digits! I called it and got a response immediately. I told them our names, that we had reservations for yesterday, and that we had just then arrived. All the while I could hear her punching buttons to get all of this information into and out of the computer. She said that there was a 9:00 o'clock flight which was full, and a 12:00 o'clock flight which wasn't. While I was still talking to her, she was able to put us on standby for the 9:00 o'clock flight and confirm reservations on the 12:00 o'clock flight.
The next step was to get ourselves over to the American Airlines terminal, which turned out to be a good ten minute walk away. We went in one big building, just packed full of people, and all just for American Airlines flights. I sat Diana down to watch the bags, and stood in one line to see about checking in. Before I waited more than a minute or so, a roving person from the airlines came along and asked where I was going. I told her "San Francisco" and she directed me down to another line to check in the baggage. It took about ten minutes in this line, but we got through and we checked in our bags.
We were directed to Gate 7 (out of 15 gates), where I waited in another line to see about getting seats and boarding passes. I got to the front and was told that we were standbys, and so we had to wait. At that, I didn't think our chances were too good of going on the 9:00 o'clock flight, as there appeared to be lots of people on standby. I waited a few minutes, though, and before long they called for Miss Thorpe. Her name had come up on the standby list from the computer. I brought our tickets up and said that there were two of us. There was room, and so here we are, flying to San Francisco, sitting in the last row of an American Airlines DC-10. We are in center-aisle seats, and so can't really see anything out the window, but so far it appears that there is a cloud cover below us, so we couldn't see much anyway.
I am amazed. With all of the people going and coming, with only that short space of time available, they were, by use of computers and good organization, able to move us along and through.
We just finished lunch on the plane. It was a treat. I had milk, strawberries, cantalope, and another kind of melon, all for the first time since these last 2 1/2 years.
They tell me that there is not a flight from San Francisco to San Jose until 3:30, a wait of 3.5 hours. Therefore, I will check into the possibilities of taking a bus down to San Jose.
End of Journal
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