After a decent night’s sleep, I showered and got my bags
mostly packed up before meeting Cody and Bobbi downstairs for breakfast at 7:00
am. Mr. Rodrick Smart was to meet us at 7:30, but he showed up early – before
we had finished eating. So we all talked a few minutes while the three of us
finished getting our breakfast down. Then we made our way out to his antique Peugeot
sedan for the trip to his house, and visit with his wife, Florence.
About three years ago Florence suffered her first stroke,
and she’s had several since. They’ve left her unable to speak, walk, feed or
dress herself. She requires now constant round-the-clock care. The daughter of
Mrs. Iyamu works for them several hours each day to help with Florence, and two
of their children have moved back home in order to help take care of their mum.
A son who was there when we arrived told me of his love of cooking, and how he
had a restaurant before his mom’s stroke. He sold it and moved home to help
with her because “she gave so much for us, we need to give back.
” A very
honorable attitude! When the time is right he plans to once again get back into
the restaurant business.
Mrs. Smart has never met me, but she smiled and seemed happy
to greet me. But when Cody and Bobbi came over, whom she’s known for a number
of years, she was laughing and even had tears of joy to see them. That is quite
a testament to the love and concern they have shown for God’s people in
Nigeria, and how our brethren here respond to that!
The power was out (an occurrence more common than the power
being on), so after we arrived Mr. Smart fired up a small generator. Everyone
who want to have power when it is needed must own a “gen”, and likely two. I
noticed that he has two, the small one he started (probably just for a few
lights and such), and a larger one that probably has the capacity to run most
everything in the house.
The Smarts, their son and a daughter as well as the three of
us shared some enjoyable conversation for nearly an hour. But the traffic in
the city would be picking up by now, and our schedule was tight (or so we
thought), so we loaded back into the old Peugeot to go back to our hotel, finish
packing, settle the bill and head to the Benin City “international” airport.
(It is called an international airport, but I’m not sure any flights actually
come in or out from another country. I suppose it could be that international
visitors occasionally pass through, so the more prestigious name is used!).
While the Smarts have a nice house – spacious by Nigerian
standards – their road, the city “street” is as bad as any I’ve seen. I tried
to take some pictures out the windshield, but there is no way to capture the
full impact of such a road on a flat two-dimensional photograph!
Back at the hotel I changed into the shirt I want to travel
in, packed the last few items in my suitcase, checked to make sure I’d not left
any chargers or other things, and headed down to the front desk. Mr. Smart
stayed with us even though Osas was coming back with his trusty old Volkswagen
to take us to the airport, about a 10 minute drive depending on traffic.
Osas arrived shortly, and with the bill paid it was time to
begin the long trip home. We loaded our bags and climbed into the Volkswagen
with Mr.
Smart and the elderly Peugeot leading the way – but not for long. Part
way to the airport he began to slow, and limped the car to the shoulder. Osas
stopped behind them and the two of them got under the hood to see what was
wrong. It shuddered and started to fire once, and then nothing more. It took
only a minute or so to determine he’d pushed the fuel a bit too far, and was
now out of gas. As sorry as we were to see this happen, we were grateful it
didn’t happen someplace between his house and the hotel, where it could have
been much more challenging for us to get back and packed in time!
Mr. Smart grabbed a plastic jug from his trunk and hopped in
with us. Osas dropped him off at a petrol station that was on the way, and we
said our goodbye’s. He would either walk the few blocks back to his car, or
perhaps catch a ride with someone passing through, and with this fuel should be
able to make it back up to the station to get more. He hoped to accomplish this
in time to see us at the airport, but it was going to take him longer than
that, so we didn’t see him again before we departed.
Driving in to the Benin City airport is not very inspiring.
The airport is anything but new and modern, and there are deteriorating
buildings on the edge of the property. I don’t know what they are used for, but
I’m glad that wasn’t the terminal!
The check-in process for our AirPeace flight went quickly and
smoothly, and I noticed there were few people there. Perhaps this short shuttle
flight to Lagos would be mostly empty. Actually, it turned out there was
another reason none of us were immediately aware of.
After going through security and entering the departure area
we found seats and began what should be a short wait. Cody bought us a pastry
filled with cooked beef, which was really quite good, and would last me for the
day.
There was no announcement of any kind, but we saw an
AirPeace jet land and pull up to the empty loading and unloading pad. People
started lining up, and we joined the queue. When we reached the ticket agent we
discovered this was a flight to Abuja, not Lagos, so we stepped aside and went
back to our seats.
Our flight was to leave at 11:40 am for the 20-30 minute
flight to Lagos. But no other plane landed. 11:00 and there was not a single
plane at the airport. 11:15, 11:30, we wondered what was going on, so Cody and
I both went to find out. We talked to different agents, but got the same story –
no plane was coming this morning and they didn’t know why. But our flight was
rescheduled for 3:45pm.
We are already at the airport, we’d watched our luggage
wheeled through the departure area (there is no conveyer belt here), so we need
to stay here. We paid a small fee to enter the VIP “lounge” which would give us
more comfortable seating, a TV blaring the tiring focus from CNN and free
drinks (which turned out to be one cup of either coffee or tea). So we read,
slept, talked and played a couple of card games while we waited.
Finally we saw airport workers going out to the tarmac (an
encouraging sign) and shortly an AirPeace jet landed. As we boarded we were
told it was open seating – meaning the seat number on your boarding pass is
meaningless. Fortunately we were early in the line, so we got three seats near
the front. And since passengers from both the scheduled morning and afternoon
flights were here, this plane was completely full! We took off and the short
trip went well. Just about the time we hit our peak altitude (22,000 feet) we
started right back down.
In his welcome, the pilot apologized for the delay, saying
the plane that was to come this morning had developed mechanical problems and
was unable to fly. I’m good with that … because unlike Mr. Smart’s Puegeot, if
the jet develops a problem in the air we can’t just coast to the side and pop
the hood to fix it! Besides, our flight out of Lagos wasn’t until later in the
evening, so we had time. The main casualty of the delay was we were now unable
to visit with a family who lives in Lagos this trip.
The regional flight does not land at the Murtala Muhammed
International Airport, but rather at a nearby regional airport. So we have to
collect our luggage, go out and negotiate for a taxi and then go to the large
International airport. Bobbi stayed with our luggage so I could go out with
Cody and see how this process works. It turns out that Cody is an EXCELLENT
negotiator! The taxi driver might not be happy when he’s done, but he gets the
best price possible. I think I want to ask him to come down next time I need to
buy a car or some other large-ticket item!
Cody and Bobbi had warned me about how confusing and messy
the check-in procedure would be, but just like on arrival it went very
smoothly, much to everyone’s delight. We cleared security with a little time,
so we went into one of the restaurants to get something to drink. Sadly,
several men came in and lit up very bad smelling cigars, so we had to beat a
hasty retreat to the concourse.
We had time to stroll back and forth for awhile as we
talked. They stopped to buy a couple of souvenirs and then it was time for me
to go to my gate (my flight leaves an hour before theirs). I got seated, but
the pilot announced we would be delayed taking off because a luggage conveyer
belt had broken, and it was taking longer to load our bags. But no worries, he
could make up time in the air to get us on the ground in Amsterdam on time.
The trip to Atlanta was smooth, and as I sit here in the Hartsfield
airport, I’m ready to board the final leg of my trip home. I can hardly wait to
see the beautiful smiling face of my wife when I come around the corner in Fort
Smith this afternoon!
For those who have read along with me, I hope this has been
of some value and interest to you. And for those who have prayed for the safety
and success of the trip – thank you very much! We try to be wise and plan as
carefully as we can, but we all know it is only in God’s protection that we can
truly trust!
june Barrett
2017-08-24
Thanks for the blog, I really enjoyed keeping up with you and your group. We pray for you and group.
Kathy Treybig
2017-08-24
We thoroughly enjoy reading about your travels to visit our far off brethren! Knowing Cody & Bobbi plus a few of the FOI volunteers made it easy to visualize what you were writing. You should be home by the time I'm reading this. :-)