May 13, May 14, and May 15 - The Journey

The many stories from our sundry journeys are too great to tell quickly, so I'll reserve their telling for those who experinced them.  However, the title of this post, covering three days, should give you some indication of our immediate history.  I'll offer a brief overview:

After being held up in Atlanta for several hours due to a mechanical problem on our Delta flight to JFK, we arrived in New York to find that we missed our flight to Dakar.  The Delta supe (to call him cruel and lazy would be an insult to cruel and lazy people) who was to take care of us split us up, with many different itineraries.  All of the following were on the table, and actually assigned to members of the group:

• JFK to Dakar, direct with a 2-day stay in NY
• JFK to Boston, to Paris, to Dakar
• JFK to Minneapolis to Paris to Dakar
• JFK to Montreal, to Paris, to Dakar
• JFK to Detroit, to Paris, to Dakar
• JFK to Washington DC, to Paris, to Dakar
• JFK to Manchester (UK), to Paris, to Dakar
• JFK to Atlanta - (yes, the airport we just came from), to Paris, to Dakar

As we went to bed on Thursday night, in a bad NY airport hotel, these were the itineraries on the table. (After a major hassle with hotel vouchers and meal vouchers -- these are deserving of individual posts, so I'll refrain from detailing here the massive screw job Delta dealt us.)

However, Friday brought more changes.  Some of the crazier plans were dropped, and we consolidated into several groups: the NY-Dakar Group, the Atlanta Group, the Manchester Group, the Detroit Group, and the Dulles Single.  But even these were screwed up, as there's nothing so bad that Delta cannot make it worse.  The Manchester group was actually routed through Casablanca, because more mechanical problems from Delta made them miss their connections.

I could also speak about the missed luggage, and the buckets of lies that were poured over us by various Delta agents, but, in deference to those who are STILL missing their luggage (I got mine after two more return trips to the airport in Dakar, at 4 am and 7 am this morning, but others weren't so lucky), I will refrain.

So tonight, our first night reunited as a group and the first time since many of us have slept on a bed in a while, we are actually relieved to see one another, and we are exhausted after successfully slogging through a day on Goree Island together.  We rewarded ourselves with fine conversation and a great meal on the rooftop terrace hotel of the Djolloff, our hotel while in Dakar.

All the while, our facilitators from the West African Research Center (WARC) have done right by us.  They have worked tirelessly to make things right for us, to the point of sleeping in our van overnight so that they might get us to the airport to check for our lost luggage (twice).  I can't say enough about heir kindness, consideration, and attention.  This trip teetered on collapse for a while there, and they have worked hard to right it.  They should all be in upper management at Delta.