Luggage, Passport Control, and My First Day

So the rest of my flight into Johannesburg was uneventful, apart from the amazing coffee that they served with breakfast. Usually I’m not a coffee drinker, but I though after “sleeping” on a plane for two nights straight it could do me good. It might have been the best cup of ordinary coffee that I’ve ever had. Anyway, enough with coffee. In Johannesburg, I was almost certain that I wouldn’t get my luggage. You see, the unnamed airline that I was berating earlier has an especially bad record when it comes to losing luggage. Thing like sending your luggage on non-existent flights and so on, so I could hardly expect them to successfully transfer it from Halifax to Montreal to Frankfurt to Johannesburg. So there I was, going through in my head what I would do if my luggage didn’t come, when lo and behold, there it was. I could hardly believe it! I don’t care that their customer service is terrible and their entertainment system didn’t work and their food was disgusting, because I had my bags!

So without having to spend hours creating a claim for my lost baggage, I had some time in Johannesburg airport. I spent most of it just looking around the shops. It was very strange to see the “Out of Africa” shop, which I’m sure people will remember from our first trip to Africa, without gaggles of Kokopellians.

The flight to Walvis Bay was nice and short on a very tiny plane. It was a beautifully clear day and you could see all the way to the ground for almost the entire journey. I snapped some good pictures from the air that I’ll post soon. Flying into Walvis Bay was like landing on another planet – the desert looks so surreal from above. But as we were about to land, a thought crossed my mind, a thought of slight panic. I was recalling our previous trips to Namibia and the immigration form that we had to fill out. One of the required fields was “Address while in Namibia”. Now, before I left home, I had a list of questions to ask Scott. Most of them were more for the sake of my mother than myself, but there were a few that I did need answers to. So I sent an email to Scott with all my questions, and got very useful answers to almost every question. Every question that is, except for what my address would be. I think he wrote that he didn’t know off hand, but that I would be staying where he is staying, which is with Dirk and Marie who are very nice people who hosted members of the choir last summer. At the time this answer seemed fine to me since I knew I would have people to show me around and such. I thought to myself, my mom probably just wanted to know in case she wanted to write. But hark; there was another reason why I needed to know the address. So I went up to the passport desk having left that one field blank and stood there looking very innocent. I did, however, remember one piece of information that was probably my ticket into the country. I remembered that Dirk was the manager of the Walvis Bay airport! So even though I could even give his last name, after pleading with the immigration officer I was able to get into the country with nothing written in the address field but “Swakopmund, Dirk and Marie”! Thanking my lucky stars that that worked out, I grabbed my bags and headed for the door. Engelhardt and Mrs. Venter were waiting for me. However, I guess I gave up on the innocent face a little too soon because before I could get through the door a police officer pulled me aside asking me if I want to declare anything to Namibian customs. I guess he wasn’t satisfied, so he sent me to an office where my things were searched. After that ordeal I was finally in the country for real! It was great to see Engelhardt and Mrs. Venter again. As we were leaving, Dollar also arrived at the airport, but I guess he got the time of the flight wrong.

Mrs. Venter and Engelhardt had some plans for me, but I insisted that before I do anything I needed a shower. So I had a shower at Mrs. Venter’s house while she dropped Engelhardt at choir practice and then we joined him there later. Engelhardt has been working with Linus’s high school choir while Linus has been in Canada, and they have a performance in Windhoek this weekend, so Engelhardt was having Mrs. Venter in to help them prepare. They were working on a couple pieces you might have heard of – Wilsbok and Hosanna Nkosi Pesulu. After rehearsal Mrs. Venter dropped me and Engelhardt off at Dirk and Marie’s to get settled before going to Mrs. Venter’s house to have dinner with Dollar, Jeremy, and Lindsay. I was great to catch up and hear about all the things Mascato is doing. I got home to around 9pm and slept until 9am the next morning.