Time stood still and raced ahead in alternate pattern on our way to the airport to catch our Delta flight to Miami via Atlanta. We had planned everything to a tee, packed ahead of time, and thought through all sorts of logistics. However, on the day, Lekki Phase one was in gridlock from about 11.30 am. By the time we hurriedly got into the car with our baggage at about 5:15 pm, we were already utterly exhausted. We would have fallen into deep sleep on the journey to the airport, but for the high anxiety of possibly missing our flight. I have never seen so many cars jammed packed on the road, it was like those epic movies where everyone is leaving town because of some impending disaster.
Our driver Moshood, came into his own weaving through the traffic, never sparing the tiniest opening, and sometimes bullying his way in. He used the horn liberally, and for the first time ever, we remained silent and did nothing to curb his aggressive driving. It was in fact accurate and very skilled.
We could not sleep, as we had planned to because our eyes were pinned on the road as though that would somehow miraculously do something to clear the mayhem.
We tuned our car radio to a channel that had people calling in to report on traffic at various points in Lagos. The reports were not encouraging at all! Someone called in and announced in a very excited voice telling us that Ozumba was free, and he could see all the way to Bonny camp. I tried my best not to resent the man, who advised, we should avoid Osborne. 'Ya! ha-loooo I am stuck on Osborne, so what gives?' One man called in and made a hilarious comment that can only come from a Nigerian. He said "Traffic come tie wrappa!" There was all sorts of dialogue going on in my head ranging from various resentful attitudes towards the free flowing traffic areas to silently whispered prayers for God to help us. Hmmm,it was a challenge, my usual ability to remain calm and patient flew right out of the window. I could hardly think and was totally overcome with emotions such as fear, panic, impatience and all sorts of images flashed through my head. It was quite intense, and thankfully, the high energy of the emotions combined with sheer exhaustion from our prior activities, sent us into a sleepy stupor for a while. It did not last long, and we were soon awake again, and I had a crick in my neck from all the held in tension.
The most nerve racking part came when we were within sights of the ramp leading up to the departure drop off zone. My eyes flitted between the digital display of time on the dashboard and our position on the ramp and my mind kept calculating and making assumptions based on these as to our estimated time of arrival. It did not feel good at all, I felt so much as though I was in a pressure can about to self combust. So I got into an animated discussion with hubby as to whether or not we should just jump down with our cases and get one of the roaming touts behind trolleys to convey our baggage into the airport building. Moshood kept faith and kept reassuring us that we would make it, all the while inching forward with precision, not letting as much of a hair's width of space go to waste.
At that very moment, I was in fact so agitated that I felt like flying out if the car and sprinting to the Delta airlines desk. We were in front of departure drop off with twenty minutes to when the check in counter closed. On reaching the drop off zone, there was absolutely no where to park, or pull in to drop our bags, so we sort of double parked. The nano second hubby and I got down to offload our bags from the back of the car, a couple of gun toting , pot bellied individuals in uniform ( I honestly don't know which uniform) came forward trying to shoo us off, and stopping us from offloading. I took a split decision there and then, yanking down our two biggest bags in no time flat. I had no idea I had that kind of strength in my arms! It was one of those 'sense of wonder ' moments like the story of a mother who single handedly lifted a car off her child's body. Adrenalin is a fabulous hormone that will deliver a super hero quantum of ' kick ass power' when you need it. Hubby yanked down the hand luggage bags and later on when all sanity had retuned , he asked me why I chose to grab the two bigger bags. I was silent. I cannot explain why, it just happened, and I just saw a difficult situation that I attacked with all the adrenalin pumping gusto I could muster.
If all the preceding stress was not enough, we still had to negotiate entering the airport building's doors, where the airport authorities of MMA1 had cleverly installed one single scanning machine for all passengers coming through to check in. It was one of those daft decisions, which make me wonder what exactly is wrong with us as a people, and why we are incapable of forward planning, rational thought and managing crowds.
It was like Tejuosho, Mushin and Ajegunle on steroids. The ground was wet from the recent rain, there were muddy puddles waiting to be stepped into, and everyone was surging forward towards the doors at the same time with a variety of sizes of luggage. The smell of sweat was thick in the air, I was aware of being far too close to various people's mostly squishy anatomical parts, and I was literally eyeball to eyeball with one lady. Everyone was shouting and pushing, and it was absolute pandemonium, but the super hero adrenalin enablement had not subsided. I shamelessly pushed past them all, elbowing unseen people who had no idea that I was not deranged at all but making sure we got to the check in counter before it closed. There was too much at stake, two connecting flights and a cruise ship at the end of it, and all our friends who were going to be on the same cruise for a destination birthday gathering. We just about poured ourselves in through the crowded door, and made it to the check in counter.
I have never been happier to be at the boarding gate, and it was an enormous relief to get seated on board. Very soon, our bodies caught up to the pace of the recent activity and we fell into a deep sleep, knowing that we had the length of twelve and a half hours ahead to unwind. The chirpy, smiling Delta airways cabin crew's hospitality was so welcome, I could have group hugged them out of sheer relief.
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