There is always a first time

For the second time this month I got to spend a number of hours in a an airport..... the second worst international airport I had ever flown from.

Being Easter weekend, and thus a long weekend as I get to have Sunday off, I decided to spend it in the tranquillity and beauty of the Libyan Desert.

The weekend was all planned.... I was to catch a plane to Sebha.... South West of Libya..... where a friend would be waiting for me and we'd head off to a camp outside Sebha and thus a 2 day tour of the amazing Salt Lakes, Sand Dunes, and city of Jerma.

The planes to Sebha run by Libyan Airlines, are very well known for their remarkably long delays, thus I was very surprised, when at 19.30 - the time the flight was supposed to take off, I was climbing up the stairs to our Libyan Airlines Aircraft. After a little argument between the air hostess a passenger the plane decided to take off..... I sat back tied my seat belt and got ready for my Libyan Desert Adventure.....

Alas... the plane drove around the run way for about 15mins then decided to stop.......they let us off the plane, boarded us on the bus, then took us back to the gate. The rule in Libya apparently is either not to give any information, or to make it a point not to know anything.

I was not surprised about the delay, though slightly disappointed, but it somehow met my expectations of flights to Sebha...... apparently the weather in Sebha was bad, as there was a Sand Storm and thus poor visibility, so the plane could not depart...... when asked how long would the delay be we were told 'about an hour or two.... inshalla'..... I have learnt to hate this word with all my heart.......a word used to mean 'God Willing', however also very often used as 'depends if I feel like or not' or 'It will not happen'. A word I also learnt to hate throughout these passing hours was 'shwejjah' which is supposed to mean ' a little bit', but in this case mean 'I have no idea' or ' a couple of hours'...

So we waited for 2hours when suddenly we were given new boarding passes.... which was very hopeful..... and then we were chucked out of the gate and moved back into the airport.... which was not at all hopeful.......
This was very frustrating, nobody knows anything.....nobody spoke English, and whenever we tried asking in both broken Arabic and sign language ' when will the plane leave' we were told 'bad weather in Sebha' 'shwejjah' and 'one hour inshalla'. By 11pm all the tourists were frustrated, the Libyans were sitting calmly on their chairs and still nobody knew...... some of the foreigners got some of their Libyan friends on the phone to speak to the people in charge..... the answer was once again 'one hour inshalla'........

Then they started letting us in the gate again... hopes were up again people were smiling and laughing..... only to discover they brought us in to give us horrible airplane food, and chuck us out of the gate again into the airport.......

Once again such an experience encourages you to bond, especially between foreigners...... I met a group of French people living in Libya and working with the French Embassy...... wonderful people...... I made friends with 3 English one of them being a young HR Manager in one of the multinational companies here in Libya..... a new buddy for the next couple of months...... and finally also enjoyed some good laughs with 3 middle aged Italian women......

It was now 2am....people have opened their sleeping bag and made themselves comfortable on the chairs, tables and floors....... a group of children made themselves comfortable on the airport mosque carpet..... and a hysterical French woman was shouting at the airport people in Arabic, French and English demanding the airline to pay a room at the Corinthia and a pick up when the plane decides to leave. The airport people insisted that 'inshalla' the plane will leave, when the weather improves.

My patience only lasts so much...... the Libyan passengers seemed to be very passive and did not do anything....... the airport people didn't understand a work of English or French so just amused themselves with the ranting woman..... so I stood up and went to ask what is up. They told me that the weather is bad so the plane will not leave, and they told me no plane tonight........ and to go home...... so I told them, OK, refund my ticket..... and they tell me no, we will not refund the ticket because the plane is not cancelled, so that is when I demanded to speak to the manager...... the once again laughed and told me to wait here 'shwejjah'..... an hour later.... now 3am..... thus 10 1/2 hours in the airport, the same airport people I spoke to called me to go with them and speak to the Manager, which, followed with one of the French diplomats I went to do.
The manager listened, then said.... its not a technical problem its a weather problem, it is not my problem and the plane is not cancelled. However the most frustrating thing is that after having spoken to my friend waiting for me in Sebha, I found out that the weather has calmed down...... no wind, and clear visibility...... so why won't the plane leave.........

All of a sudden the hysterical French woman turned up and started shouting again........ the manager got angry, walked off and closed himself in his office!!! oh no!!! nobody knows if there will be a flight or not, the airlines refuse the cancel the flight or give us a time it will be postponed to.....

I had by then given up..... and demanded to get my ticket back so as to try getting a refund..... they did accept to give me the ticket back..... but then, being 4am I had the problem that there were no taxis in the airport..... the only people around were the flight people....... when I voiced my problem the manager once again stated...... take a cab and go home.....when I told him that it is dangerous for me, a woman to be driving around in a cab at 4am in Tripoli, and besides there were no cabs.... he once again arrogantly stated..... the plane is not cancelled, its not my problem, its the weathers..... inshalla it will be better..... arghhh
So I'm stuck in the airport whether I like it or not...... I spent the rest of the time drinking coffee, running up and down the stairs of the airport trying to find out what time the flight is leaving...... and actually also energetic enough to try and keep all the other people's hopes up....... I was kind of hoping that once its sunrise (which would only be in an hour or so) the sky would clear then we could depart.......

At 6am the international flights started...... the airport people, forgot all about the Libyan Airline Sebha people and went off to handle the international flights to Morocco and Milan..... I had by then lost hope and crouched into one of the airport metal chairs......... The Italians stated 'La Nostra Thea ha perso speranza.... il aeroplano non parte'.......

At around that time...... the German group who were very quite accept for the occasional question asking if there are any news ........flipped!!! One of the elderly men..... walked up to the manager, a new who had just arrived...... the man asked if we will ever be going to Sebha..... and the manager said 'shwejjah' 'soon inshalla'...... I think this was the cherry on the cake...... we now had a hysterical German screaming at the Libyans in German (his screaming was scarier than the French woman's.....) and was almost close to punching one of them......

I think this is the point in time where they finally decided to take a decision....... - they decided to cancel the flight....... All hopes of getting to Sebha were lost.......13hrs in a lurid Libyan Airport for nothing....... when I told him that if they did this earlier we could have taken a car there...... they said 'it is very long, it takes 7hrs it is not nice'.... ahhh I got really angry..... and said.....'why 13hrs sitting in an airport is better and not even anywhere close to Sebha is better????'

I was really disappointed.......A number of mixed emotions passed through me throughout the night...... happiness, hope, despair, hope again and then final disappointment and extreme anger..... the disappointment was massive.... more cause the hopes were so high, rather than the fact that I did not get to go to Sebha after all......

I had never spent so long in an airport in my whole life....... I guess there is always a first time!!!!