Monday, March 19, 2007
Pre-flight Night
As we sat in our nice little hotel room in the small suburb of Leduc it amazed us that just 15 minutes out of Edmonton the service would be this much better. Everyone was very nice and the room was clean...smelled like a perfume store but Nik had her epi-pen so we were good. The stress of moving out of our place was tremendous and we were just coming down from that. The TV had a nice educational show on with an 8 year-old boy interviewing people like whale watching guides and eco-adventurers so Abby was relaxed and content. Bob had returned to the hotel after dropping us off and brought Abby's car seat which we still have with us though it has almost been left behind again. Once we hit lights out quite late the anxiety of packing had left and the next wave slowly came on as we tossed and turned until the party upstairs began at 12:30. Of course Abby slept straight through and Nik and I pretended not to notice, so with our early wake up call we were less than refreshed. However, the frigid westerly wind did a fine job of providing refreshment.
We hurriedly stepped into the complimentary airport shuttle for our quick ride to the airport and spoke to our driver who was quite friendly. Of course the conversation turned to, "what the hell do you need that much luggage for?" and when we said we were off to Tanzania he was happy and amazed as he had moved to Canada 7 years ago from Somalia, just to the north. He spoke a bit of Swahili to us before realizing we did not understand and then gave us the story of his immigration to Canada.
He began by making us understand that we should only change money with Banks and official money changers for fear of receiving fake money as he had 7 years earlier. "I was headed through the border from Somalia to Tanzania," he began, "and had only $100USD. As I needed smaller bills to bribe the police as I traveled I asked for some smaller bills at the border. I had no trouble getting to Canada with that but the problems began when I entered the TD bank in Vancouver. I needed to change my $50 bill to Canadian money and handed it to the teller. As I spoke no English I did not understand why she asked me to wait and wait and wait. For 40 minutes I waited as she had called the police because my $50USD was fake. Eventually it all got straightened out and thankfully the police did not show up and here I am 7 years later in Edmonton with nothing but opportunity everywhere. Cold yes, but lots of opportunity here."
We heeded his words and accepted his help in loading the luggage onto a couple of carts and headed to check in. The process went quickly as did security, though they were a bit confused about a few items we had. I think the prescription drugs looked a little odd on the x-ray machine. But we were resting comfortably with a view of the runways having a coffee and breakfast waiting to board the plane with time to spare, so all was going according to plan.
We hurriedly stepped into the complimentary airport shuttle for our quick ride to the airport and spoke to our driver who was quite friendly. Of course the conversation turned to, "what the hell do you need that much luggage for?" and when we said we were off to Tanzania he was happy and amazed as he had moved to Canada 7 years ago from Somalia, just to the north. He spoke a bit of Swahili to us before realizing we did not understand and then gave us the story of his immigration to Canada.
He began by making us understand that we should only change money with Banks and official money changers for fear of receiving fake money as he had 7 years earlier. "I was headed through the border from Somalia to Tanzania," he began, "and had only $100USD. As I needed smaller bills to bribe the police as I traveled I asked for some smaller bills at the border. I had no trouble getting to Canada with that but the problems began when I entered the TD bank in Vancouver. I needed to change my $50 bill to Canadian money and handed it to the teller. As I spoke no English I did not understand why she asked me to wait and wait and wait. For 40 minutes I waited as she had called the police because my $50USD was fake. Eventually it all got straightened out and thankfully the police did not show up and here I am 7 years later in Edmonton with nothing but opportunity everywhere. Cold yes, but lots of opportunity here."
We heeded his words and accepted his help in loading the luggage onto a couple of carts and headed to check in. The process went quickly as did security, though they were a bit confused about a few items we had. I think the prescription drugs looked a little odd on the x-ray machine. But we were resting comfortably with a view of the runways having a coffee and breakfast waiting to board the plane with time to spare, so all was going according to plan.
