Day 9 – “Battle of Accra airport”

Leslie and Andrew: 

Don’t fly Delta. Just advice from me to you.

After a wonderful Lebanese lunch at Frankie’s and a series of harried bargains at an arts and crafts fair (Irene stood out as one of the tough negotiators) over paintings, bracelets, decorative masks, statues, and shirts, we headed to Accra airport… and got stuck. The traffic jam of the century led us to worry we would actually miss our flights despite the fact that we left around 5 hours before the flight was scheduled to depart. As we waited in traffic, one of us got the bright idea to make a run for it (we were, according to Google, only 2km from the airport). With militaristic efficiency, the bigger guys got out first to unload the bags, and the rest of us made a mad dash for the airport. Most of us were overtaken by the bus, which of course started to move as soon as we all got out.

We got to the airport one hour and fifty five minutes before the 10:00pm Delta flight, fifty five minutes before the 9:00pm KLM and Lufthansa flights. Guess which of us made it? The epic dash to the airport was a success for those on KLM and Lufthansa. The rest of us stayed another night in Ghana, but thanks to a series of bold moves by the calmest among us (Erin, Andrew, James, and Anya – thanks!) we got on the flight the next day.