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I remember leaving Columbus for two months in New Zealand my senior year actually excited that my flight consisted of multiple, long legs and undaunted by the need to recheck my bags in L.A. Now I’m much lazier so was unpleasantly surprised to learn upon my arrival at Ronald Reagan that after flying from Atlanta to Joburg I would be required to pass through customs, collect my baggage, navigate the airport in search of the LAM ticket counter, check-in, re-clear security and re-check my baggage. Within 45 minutes. Even the woman checking me in, who had been wearing a scornful visage only moments earlier, immediately adopted a pained, pitying look when my itinerary flashed onto the screen and spent another 20 minutes attempting to amend my booking.
In the end nothing could be done. Assuming my travel agent must have known what he was doing, I actually didn’t worry (after first calling about 12 of my relations to complain) and instead settled in for a long ride, appreciating the free glass of wine and the large selection of movies. After landing 45 minutes early and making the connection without a problem, I have since learned that the agent banned that itinerary, on account of too many people losing their bags or missing their connection.
After collecting my bags in the warm, sticky Maputo international airport (thinking, “Isn’t it supposed to be winter here?”), I was greeted by a smiling USAID driver with a “USAID – Taryn Anderson” sign who quickly took control of my luggage cart while I hurried to follow him to a large government SUV parked in the USG’s VIP spot.
My first glimpse of Mozambique was, well, dark. The air outdoors was still humid but not as warm as it was inside, and the night sky seemed a little clouded by the dusty landscape. Coconut trees were framed by the moon. Not surprisingly, the airport was small (and conveniently close to my soon-to-be home) but was being expanded in time for the World Cup – or so that’s the goal.
A quick 10-minute drive had us at my supervisor’s door, where she joined us before making the trek to my new house. She had kindly changed some money for me and bought me from that amount a few groceries to get me started for breakfast but the highlight was a bag of homemade banana-cinnamon muffins = YUM.
