Letter from Menongue
Thalefang Charles | Tuesday February 23, 2016 14:03
The carousel stops but there is no sign of my bag. Jimmy, our pick-up guy is already at the bag collection area where normally only passengers are allowed inside. Well, in Angola many things are done differently.
When I tell Jimmy that my bag is missing he asks whether I literally fingered it to be put in the plane at the airport. I tell him I checked it in but he explains that that does not matter. If I did not identify it physically to be put in the right aircraft, the authorities would not have put it in. Immediately Jimmy knows what the problem is and he reassures me saying, “No prroblem! It’s not lost. It is left behind.” He then takes me to the Lost Baggage section for them to assist me.
It turns out that at Luanda Airport, before the staff take passengers’ checked-in baggage inside the plane, every passenger must identify their bag by pointing at it. That is when I remember that when we got out of the bus that took us to the plane from the terminal building, there were some officials shouting out some announcements in what I believe was Portuguese. I just carried on boarding and did not bother to ask what all the fuss was about because I knew that my stuff was in order. And that is how my bag got left behind.
Although Jimmy keeps saying “No prroblem!” there is actually a problem because the next flight from Luanda to Menongue is in three days time. And I do not have three days in Menongue as I am scheduled to travel to the Cuito source lake the following day.
All I have are my cameras and laptop in my hand luggage hard case. The only essential items in my missing luggage are my medications from National Geographic in the United States. I am expected to carry these everywhere I go because Angola still has old deadly diseases that I should be ready for.
Typhoid, Yellow Fever and Malaria are still endemic in these areas. I am hoping that John Hilton from Okavango Wilderness Project (OWP) who is heading the Expedition’s support team will arrive before these ailments get to me. Jimmy says he spoke to Hilton in the morning and he is expected to arrive by road in Menongue in the afternoon.
In the meantime Jimmy transports us with his big black Land Cruiser to the Halo Trust where we will be staying for the night. Halo Trust is an organisation that is demining landmines that were left during the war in Angola. Landmines are still a pressing problem in Angola. Halo says they have removed about 45 percent of these bombs and their delicate work is still far from over.
Halo Trust has been of great assistance to OWP by offering necessary support for the expedition to travel to deep uninhabited areas up in the Angolan highlands. They have offered to transport us to the shops so that I could purchase any essentials I need before getting into the bush the following day. There is a Shoprite in Menongue that takes Visa cards and I manage to get some toiletries. Earlier when we were out, I saw two big rivers rapidly flowing through the small town. It is those rivers that have brought me here because of their significance to my country. Waters from raindrops that fall on these highlands have formed great rivers that travel long distance to form the Okavango Delta. Tomorrow I am travelling to the source lake of the Cuito River – the biggest river that feeds into the Okavango.
All I pray for now is for Hilton to arrive in time before anything goes wrong. There are huge clouds forming and I think it will rain any minute from now.