Thursday, February 7. It is time to leave Tamale for Accra. I have to go to the office of Projects Abroad who will take me to Cape Coast for volunteering. I have a plane ticket and directions for a taxi to the office. At 4.30 am I get up to pack my last things. Abdul Manan and Ibrahim are already working on the car. At 5.45 am I say goodbye to the doctor, Fadila and Baba. The rest is still sleeping. Sakina accompanies me to the airport with Manan and Ibrahim. We don‘t talk during the ride. At the airport, she takes my hand and waits with me for check-in. I am lucky, they don‘t charge me for my heavy luggage. Sakina seems to fight with tears so I want to make the farewell short. One last goodbye to the boys and her, than I pass the security checks. The plane is supposed to leave at 7.30 am, but I can‘t see any plane. Officers come and go. A plane arrives. Then we are told there is a minor technical problem. The flight will be delayed for one or two hours. Antrak Air offers free sandwiches or omelettes as an apology. I am not hungry. A very talkative woman from the US tells her fellow passengers about her work. She sells baskets woven by Ghanaian women. The clock is ticking. I get hungry and decide to take the Antrak Air breakfast. At 12 am I ask one of the smiling officers for new information. I have to pick up a bag at the airport in Accra before I can join Projects Abroad and go to Cape Coast. I am getting nervous. They are waiting for an engineer. When he arrives, he can tell me more, but until 1 pm we should be ready to leave. The passengers get restless, some buy a second ticket with a different airline. The clock is ticking. I am glad that there are two fans in the room. We can see our aircraft standing outside but there is no one working on it. More passengers arrive. One is a lady I met at a meeting in the hospital. She recognises me and when she notices that I am on the edge of desperation, she talks to some officers. They are arranging flights for us. We are leaving any moment now. At 2 pm officers start running out to the field and back to the room again and pilots arrive. Some passengers gather around them and I see a list of names in one of the officers‘ hands but I have no idea what is going on. A CityLink plane arrives and the newly arrived passengers and those with a second ticket board the plane and leave. Some time later, a few names are called. The lucky passengers are lead to a small aircraft and leave. They are the ones who talked to the pilots and officers. The pilots, however, stay with the rest of the passengers and wait. At 3 pm the American basket seller makes one of the officers talk. Antrak Air is talking to the Air Force to take us to Accra. We should leave at 4 pm. Happy faces. I see how our luggage is taken to a military plane. We wait. At 5 pm, even the American woman looks tired. One of the officers sees my face and offers me something to eat. He says he is sorry. The Air Force is waiting for some „honourable men“ and then we will all leave together. I imagine them having dinner, chatting and laughing. The American woman demands food. We get three sandwiches to share. At 6 pm, our departure is announced. We board the small, hot aircraft and can‘t wait to take off. The American woman gives me a block of word-find to play. She says they will help me to find the office. One and a half hours later, we land in Accra. A bus takes us from the airstrip of the Air Force to the main airport. There is nobody with my bag. One of the passengers is going in the same direction as me so we take a taxi together. I give her the information I have and hope that I‘ll arrive at the right place. We drive through the dark streets and suddenly the taxi driver stops in front of a blue gate. We knock and it really is the right place. I am led to a room with beds and left alone. After a while I ask a woman who walks past the door what is happening next. Someone will bring me to Cape Coast the next morning, she says. I still don‘t have my bag, but I am tired. I turn on the fan and go to sleep.
