A Glimpse into My Latest Travel Experience
It’s been a different one
I’m tired. It’s been a long week. Looking out the window I see a country covered in low hanging clouds. Fog. Now and then some brighter spots come up. It’s the lights of smaller cities and towns. It looks like some cotton balls have been thrown over the countryside.
I do understand now why I was so stressed the last few days. There were so many things that could have gone wrong. Or let’s say not gone wrong but simply not worked out the way they did.
It’s not the first flight I’ve taken but it’s the first commercial flight I’ve taken since the pandemic started.
I knew things would be different. I knew I would need a COVID test to enter the country of my destination. I knew a lot of things I had to organize beforehand. But I didn’t know what to expect. There were so many unknowns.
I contacted the operating airline beforehand asking if I needed a negative COVID test to board the plane. They denied it. Which would have been a disaster if I would not have organized the fast test and said we’ll need it only once we arrive in Namibia.
Because once we arrived at the gate we were informed nobody will be allowed to board the plane if not showing a negative test result. I mean seriously? How can you get such simple information so wrong? I don’t even want to think about it if I would not have gotten the result in time.
Communication my friends. Pandemic here or there. Communication is the key. Why do you think so many customers are so rude and impolite to your staff? Because they were given the wrong information. Or no information at all.
As a result, people do stay behind. As a result, the crew members are in a bad mood before even getting on the plane. As a result, you’re sitting in a plane filled with a ticking time bomb. Unsatisfied customers and an unhappy crew.
I know this is new for all of us. The whole pandemic thing. But just put up clear rules and communicate them to everyone. It’s not that difficult. You got all our e-mail addresses. Just send out a message with the restrictions and rules. And nobody will complain. Nobody will say they didn’t know.
And this would have saved so many nerves, stress, and fights from all of us.
But I guess I’m dreaming of the impossible.
This was only part one of my journey of getting home. It is let’s say the first part of it. It turned out to be a three-day-long journey. A journey to get from one home to another home.
Because I am home in more than one place in the world.
And I am moving south for summer. Escaping winter in Europa to live Africa’s summer.
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” — C.S. Lewis
