we have had an awesome start to the trip and our flight here from istanbul was hilarious. we were on turkish airlines and amongst about 20 white faces (obruni's) on the flight. for some reason the turkish airlines crew count everyone on the plane by hand, and only once counted and all passengers are seated will they take off. much like israeli's on el-al, ghanaians on their way home will not be told how to behave. this created a 90 minute exercise that looked more like a slap-stick comedy than an international flight. the hostesses would walk in threes up and down the aisles trying to count passengers. the passengers would then stand up and walk around which was met with a 'sir please take your seat we cannot leave till everyone is seated and counted'. of course the hostess would lose count and have to start again. as soon as that passenger sat down another would get up, so back to the beginning they would go. this went on for some time, until others decided to intervene. across the flight you had hundreds of people shouting in an african accent (almost sounds jamaican at first) 'why dont you sit so we can go, why don't you listen'. suddenly it was a free for all with people shouting at each other until all are seated, counted and we're ready to go. at this point it was too much for the kids who'd been waiting 90 mins and had to go to the bathroom. one was allowed permission to stand-up and run to the toilet... this was a signal for all to get up and go to the toilet. i did not know there were this many passengers on the plane, let alone children because suddenly the aisles were filled with 5-10 yr old kids all lining up to go the bathroom.... of course this meant we could not go anywhere for a little while longer.
finally we got moving and the flight was not that bad. we were fed, slept, read and thought we were on the home stretch. someone must have been hungry and went to the kitchen at the back of the plane to ask for a sandwhich. when one person discovered the kitchen was open, this indicated to the rest of the plane that there was a free food handout at the back. the entire plane stood up and ran to the back... i am surprised the plane did not turn straight up from the shift in weight and fall out of the sky! you had about 200 people rushing to the back, grabbing 5 sandwhiches and bottles of wine and then cradling them in their arms to get back to their seats. the guys next to us literally had 4 sandwhiches and 4 bottles of whine and could not fit them in their bags. the other 20 white faces and us sat still and looked at each other in shock as the hostesses were robbed of their food.
then we landed at the airport which is literally a big room with a carousel and 2 doors that say exit. there is a mad rush when you land, because all bags go on the same carousel... you see people grabbing bags and then others coming up to grab the bag from them saying 'this is mine'. for foreigners here for the first time you can imagine that we did not know what was going on. suddenly there was a shout 'all bags are unloaded'. of course our bags were nowhere to be seen and we assumed the worst. the only good thing was that about 50 others were standing around without bags, so either there was a lot of missing bags, or another load to come. fortunately the announcement was premature and we found our bags, met our driver and were on our way to the hotel.... we made it in one piece!
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