UWC Regional Meeting 2020 in Arusha, Tanzania

Those who know me know I do not travel light. Although I was only going to be in Arusha for 3 days, I had to pack all my ties because I did not know which shirt I was going to decide to wear with which suit. I imagine this indecisiveness is to make up for the days when I only had one suit, one shirt, and one pair of shoes. So I did not have the privilege to choose. But now I do. So I checked in a bag and a half for my trip to Kilimanjaro. (Although in all fairness, the half bag was gate checked by United because they did not have enough space onboard). 

All my trips to Africa since I first discovered Emirates had been on Emirates. So you can imagine how my heart broke when I had to wait out here for my United flight to DC instead of in the Emirates Lounge. Do not get me wrong, these seats were comfortable enough for me to continue reading To Kill A Mocking Bird. But it was not the Emirates Lounge. I could not pour myself a glass of shiraz, as I eat some roasted lamb. Which is a funny thing to complain about because even when I first started flying Emirates - before achieving Gold status on their Skywards frequent flier program - I did not have access to the lounge. But indulge me...

There is nothing to write home about from the United flight - unsurprisingly. The Washington - Dulles Airport is uninteresting, I realized. The two other times I used it I could not realize this. The first time I did not use the terminal because I had flown in on a chartered flight from Miami - thanks to the Emirates Skywards sponsored trip I had with Real Madrid F.C. The second time I was flying out with Emirates and used their Lounge. This time I had to entertain myself in the terminal. I grabbed breakfast and journaled a bit at an underwhelming Ethiopian restaurant. The food was good, but I do not know what I was looking for. Thanks to my undefined expectations, I was underwhelmed. 

Flight ET 501 from IAD to ADD was my very first flight on Ethiopian Airlines. It was not Emirates, but I was quite pleased with their product. I had all the wine I wanted - granted it was not the greatest of wines. I also found the food to be above average, although I was displeased by the plastic utensils. Even when I fly Emirates Economy, they use stainless steel utensils. It is a minor detail but it makes a world of a difference. The flight attendants were very nice, and they even went out of their way to serve me green tea. I felt valued as a customer. I was also pleased with the quality of the Internet. Like Emirates, Ethiopian uses OnAir for their onboard WiFi. Of course on Emirates I would not have had to pay, but hey, I am not complaining. I had a reliable Internet connection and was able to get some school work done - this trip was in the middle of a busy period at the university. I was most pleased with my row neighbors on this flight. 

The layover in Addis Ababa was not the best I have had. First of all, nobody was conducting any sort of health checks - and in this coronavirus era it matters to me - and everyone was coming from wherever and mixing. I wrote this in my journal about the Addis airport: "I really hate wearing this mask, but the Addis Ababa airport is the filthiest I have been yet. The smoking area is not even cordoned off, bathrooms are so dirty you can see germs crawl on the walls and on the floor. A real tragedy! I am going to have to rethink this whole switch to Ethiopian during my days of relative poverty. What kind of airport does not even have charging ports? And their WiFi forces you to download their mobile app - except it is so slow my dead grandma can move faster than it. Oh well!" Definitely not impressed. I was also annoyed by how they had a lot of monitors but almost all of them showed the news, with very few showing flight information. I had to walk quite a bit to find this board with flight information. 

I was satisfied with the food, the wine, and the Internet connection on the flight to Kilimanjaro. I also finished reading To Kill A Mocking Bird, 6 months later. I was not pleased that Ethiopian had decided to change the aircraft for this journey from an Airbus A350-900 to a Boeing 777 - 200LR. I love the 777 but I was looking forward to my first A359 flight. On top of that, the flight attendants on this flight did not go out of their way to make me my green tea. I suppose I am a bit entitled. A bit? I was quite pleased that I did not need a visa for Tanzania and that the immigration officer did not ask me anything about my visit. He just gave me 90 days and I was in a rush to get out of there because during the health check I had found out that some of the passengers on my flight were coming from Italy - one of the hardest hit countries by the coronavirus outbreak at the time. I had to get out of there.

The meeting was at the Mount Meru Hotel in Arusha. I was pleased with my lodgings. Except I wished I had a wife. After all we could bring spouses to this meeting. I believe life is meant to be a shared experience, and while I love fancy hotel rooms, I know they could be better with the right company. Especially since they had a bathtub. I am unsure if it was the jet lag or I was ill from my Emirates withdrawal or I had contracted the coronavirus, but the first day and a half of the conference I was ill. But from halfway through the second, life began to return to my body. I had my first genuine smile since arriving and it felt so good. I am nothing without my smile. All in all, it was a great trip. I met wonderful people who are working to make a UWC education accessible for many in Africa. I felt fortunate for the privilege to attend this meeting. I met wonderful people, and reconnected with a few that I knew from UWC USA, and my alma mater UWC Costa Rica. There was also a lot of free wine. To think I claimed I was giving up C2H5OH for Lent...

But nothing lasts forever...soon I had to return back to the US. But on our drive back to the airport we were blessed with the sight of Mount Kilimanjaro. How can I see this and not believe in the existence of Modimo mmopi wa dilo tsotlhe, Modimo mothatayotlhe? From where do I get the audacity to complain about not receiving green tea or flying on a B77L instead on an A359? I am blessed immensely. 

I was blessed on this leg of my trip to have a travel companion. I told you, life is so much better when it is a shared experience. Especially when the travel companion complements you so well. Convincing you to leave the secure area of the airport - which may or may not have been illegal, even the airport security was confused when we returned - to go chill at an area with restricted access. I knew it would be a trip to remember. Our flight started boarding before we reached back and so our zone had already boarded when we reached the gate. Despite her consideration for the passengers who were queued up and ready to board, I insisted we head to the front of the queue and board the plane. Having priority boarding on Emirates has instilled in me the courage to claim that what I am entitled to. Of course, I need to make sure that in my courage I do not go beyond that what I am entitled to and start infringing upon the rights of others. For this, I need you to keep me in check. 

They did it again, substituted an A359 for a Boeing 767-300ER. An old B763 that was falling apart, and yet I was neither disappointed nor mad. I had excellent company and all was well in the universe. Some people think I tend to overshare, or share too much about myself too quickly. But I realize people who think like that are not my kind of people. Even before the plane had taken off, my travel companion and I had shared stories from our lives that those who are afraid of life might consider too deep to be shared so early. In that moment I had clarity, I have been looking for a life companion in all the wrong places. I will not find my life companion in America - or at least the chances of that are slim. I need an African for a life partner, one who believes in Africa and its future. Not just belief in theory, but also in action. Of course I will probably not see my companion until the next meeting in 4 years, but our interaction inspired me. Or maybe it was the question she asked me during the flight, "Have you ever felt like standing up, screaming at the top of your lungs, and then just sitting down as though nothing happened?" I feel as though I have lived a thousand lifetimes in that two hour flight. I hated the dinner, but it did not matter, because we had wine, stories, and "belt-inconveniences". 

Do you believe in coincidences? Like how ten months earlier a watch on the wrist of my companion stopped at a 12.35 and for my boarding time to be 0035hrs. Hmmm! But what was even more poetic about this watch was how it accurately described our layover in Addis: time stopped. I know I am dramatic, but it did. We both had school work to finish, so we worked side by side. I got a lot of work done, more work than I thought I would finish in that time. Yet we still had time to hang out, chat a bit, and she laughed at a few of my jokes with a satisfying laughter. Is that a sign that time had stopped or what? But even when time is frozen, life has to continue and we have to catch flights to the Khartoums and Londons of this world. 

Finally! The flight to London was on an A359 - except it did not come close to an old, falling apart B763 with the companion. My companion had a soul that spoke to my soul and for that I count myself blessed. I do not remember much from that flight to London, except that there was this feeling like something was missing in the universe. Oh now I remember, there was no WiFi on this flight. Maybe that is what was missing! Or was it?