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Nostalgia Piece: New York to Nairobi, Via Kano, Nigeria in 1964
Julie Sulman
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Our flight was the second (and last) of our "wave." We were bussed to the airport, lined up behind a hanger and then told to go go go. They crammed about 150 of us on board a "Connie" re-outfitted with seats and took off before anyone could change his mind. Half of the group were kids under five. My son was almost four and my daughter 2 1/2. Andy began to throw up before we refueled in Gander and continued to do so through Shannon, Rome and the second night over MMBA. I never understood why we landed in Kano, maybe it was a fuel thing. By then it was 3 in the morning, children had been running and screaming in the aisle for a day, one crew didn't feed the animals and by the time the relief crew realized the kids hadn't eaten in 8 hours it took them another hour or so to get the meal ready. I started to hoard food. The pilot told us we would land in Kano in 1/2 hour but we were still circling an hour later in a nasty thunder/lightening storm. I made peace with my maker but we landed before dawn, walked across the steaming tarmac and entered the terminal. The first thing I saw was a very very long lizard on the underside of the stairs. Once in the lounge I saw black men 8 feet tall in white caftans and what looked like chef's hats gliding about. A stewardess told me we would be laying over for several hours and did I want her to get a doctor for my son who had by then lost a quarter of his body weight. I was sleep deprived and probably hallucinated witch doctor so I told her no thanks. Another mom gave me a rectal anti-vomiting suppository that I shoved up my kid's butt. It worked. We landed in Nairobi 42 1/2 hours after our departure. Things went better after that. |