Watch Out! | Uganda Trip #11
The transition from Amsterdam to Nairobi was a bit more sedate, other than the fact that Mike, Stu, and I were sitting side by side in a rather smallish (compared to what we’re used to) KLM airplane. When I say compared to what we’re used to-we always fly economy. Once we landed in Nairobi, the fun began. MSP would not give us a boarding pass for our last leg of the journey, which was from Nairobi to Entebbe, Uganda. We assume it was because they don’t have a partnership with Kenya Air, like they do with KLM. Once we landed, we had to find where we could get our boarding passes.
First, we had to go through security. The lines were rather long, and they tended to merge as you approached the Kenyan equivalent of the TSA. It was a little hectic, but I got all my stuff in those little bins, putting my watch in last. After getting my stuff back, I went through the process (always a bit stressful) of putting electronics back in, putting shoes back on (no TSA pre-check!), and getting out of the way for others.
I got everything put on and away, and about 25 yards down the hall, I thought “Where is my watch?”
You know, my first Apple watch and the big outlay that it is.
You know, the Larry’s Christmas gift Apple watch.
I turned in a hurry and got back to the station I went through. Thankfully, the line was a trickle at this point (one of the advantages of landing late at night). I told the man I didn’t get my watch back. He asked me to look through my backpack-nope. He got a couple of those plastic bins and asked me to take absolutely everything out. When you are leaving the US for a couple of weeks, it’s a lot. Still nothing. He took the backpack and and put it through the scanner again-nope. I was a little miffed at this point, as I was asked and put the watch in a bin in full view of an employee, put it through the scanner, took my items over to a table, and never saw it. It also crossed my mind that it may have been stolen-but I wasn’t about to accuse someone. I’m on the floor, once again, going through things, all in vain. Frustrating.
The man I was talking to got a supervisor. I told him what took place. He talked to other workers and wondered if the watch got lost in the scanner. I thought one woman was going to crawl in the scanner when the supervisor said, “What is this?” The watch had fallen out of the bin and was stuck between two of the rollers that the plastic bins slide on. After expressing thanks, we were off to secure boarding passes.
Things were quiet as our flight was at 12:55 am. We got in yet another line without about 15 people in front of us. A half-hour later, there were 14 people in front of us. With about an hour and ten minutes before departure, things did not look good.
When I think of the inefficiencies we were experiencing, I thought about a discussion we had with a young lady from the Boston area who came home for her sister’s wedding and was about to head home. I often ask people from a different culture who have moved to the US, what they like most and least about the US. She was quick to say how we are so efficient. Our processes are very sound, and most things happen like they should in this realm (she had an MBA, by the way). She really appreciated it. When asked what she would like to see different was that Americans can seem a bit robotic as they go through life. As we talked more, it seems to be a shadow side of our strength in efficiency. We don’t take the time to linger with one another because we are so busy.
Back to our line. Everyone who engaged the airline people were animated as they made their case for their problem. The biggest challenge for a number was a plane to Bangkok that had problems and there was no alternative for them. A supervisor approached Mike, asked what the problem was, and told him to go to the front of the line. Five minutes later, we had three fresh boarding passes and made it to the gate in plenty of time. Our last flight was about an hour and fifteen minutes, and we got through customs quickly. We stepped outside where Otim was ready to start our cross-county trip to Gulu starting at 2 am.