February 24, 2011

February 24, 2011 – Thursday
--I woke early and began packing in earnest for our flight. I made the final decision to leave much of my clothing for WEH so as to accommodate everything we want to take home. After the packing was completed and we counted our bags, we had only 3 check-ins – why? We’d arrived with 2 check-ins each and our respective carry-on bags, ie, 4 check-ins and carry-ons. We finally figured out that we’d used the smaller duffle as a dirty clothes bag, and when we had our laundry done in Bamenda we didn’t notice that it wasn’t returned when our clean clothes showed up in our room. Oh well – less to carry, and going home we’re a lot lighter than we were when we came 2 months ago.
--There’s no internet service anywhere in the neighborhood – Joe went to the internet café where we’ve been before, and on the way back he stopped at the Marche for a bag of cookies.
--We got a ride to the airport and checked our bags in early. Then back home for farewell dinner. At Ruth’s request, I prepared dinner using the Arizona seasonings I’d brought as a house gift. We had roasted pork with chorizo-stuffing using Ruth’s “sophisticated” pork – she raises her own pigs so’s to know what they eat, and they’re really good.
--We were back at the airport at 10:30 pm to check ourselves in. We showed our passports at least 8 times from check-in until we arrived in the passengers lobby! Just outside the lobby there was a food vendor with sandwiches and cold drinks in a cooler. Joe went out of the lobby to get things for us, but he was not allowed to bring them in. I joined him and we gulped down 1.5 L water and large can beer. Then we showed our passports again to re-enter the passengers lobby where our carry-on luggage was patiently waiting for us – it had been in full view while we had our drinks. We boarded Brussels Airlines at 12:30 am, about 30 minutes earlier than original ticketed time.