Aeroport Mohammad V, Casablanca

I decided a bit last minute to come to Holland for a wedding. This isn't like the weddings I went to in Morocco (I went to 3 weddings for people I didn't even know), but this wedding means much more to me. Melvina, one of my closest friends in South Africa, is getting married on Friday to a Dutchman. Melvina and I first met in South Africa back in 2003 when I taught Life Skills and AIDS Education Curriculum in a township outside of Cape Town. Her family invited me to stay for a few nights in their modest home in Plettenberg Baai. Since then, they've really adopted me as one of their own and I've continued to stay in contact with them while in the US and while visiting South Africa several times since 2003. I had the priviledge of meeting Melvina (and her husband to-be) last year when I came to Amsterdam and now I'm back in Holland (in Den Haag... just south of Amsterdam) for the wedding. Although Melvina knew I was coming, she didn't tell her parents so I was able to surprise them. It was as great moment, as they had no idea Ryan would randomly show up to their daughter's new apartment in The Hague.

Anyways, I thought I'd share a little bit of my experience flying here from Morocco as it was quite an memorable one. Here is a little something I wrote last night from Mohammad V Airport in Casablanca.

I don't know if it's this airport, or Air Arabia, or what. This is a total nightmare. I got here more than 2 and a half hours before the flight. I waited in line for about 1 hour and a half, passed security, got to in the terminal, only to find out the gate was already closed. "Did I miss my flight?" There were at least a hundred people still in line waiting after I checked in. It didn't say a gate, just "termine" (French, for "closed" or "finished"). After frantically going back and forth between terminal several times, only minutes before 4:10, which is when the plane was supposed to leave, it looks like I missed my plane. If the hand-written boarding passes weren't ghetto enough, a plane leaving with half it's flight missing, sure is one for the books. Only in Morocco I guess. Finally, I see a group of the people who were waiting in line with me to go to Amsterdam, all around the "information screen" getting upset at the police and airport security who have not a clue what's going on. "Just look on the screen" they said, "Air Arabia? Marsielle? France?" "NO. Amsterdam" I said. What?" Ahh... useless. They weren't much help. Finally, by ruling out that the plane didn't leave with only half flight, we assumed that it was delayed. Someone came up to us and said it was delayed 30 min (which then became 2 hours and then 4 hour delay), so we had to wait. It's pretty bad when 20 of your passengers are looking at the flight info screen, which says that the plane's left, and there's no one in the airport that can help. No Air Arabia service desks... nothing.

Back to the check-in line.... it was ridiculous. I moved about 12 feet the first 50 min. Then, this lady asked me to join her, as if we were flying together, so that her oversized bag wouldn't be charged. In America, that is totally illegal. I told her that and we both laughed. But I said, "Mekein Mushkil" ("no problem"). She was impressed by my shweeya Arabic (the reality is my Arabic is even far from "shweeya" so I tried not to feel too good about myself), and was grateful of my decision to help her out. OK, so I know I'm going to get a flood of emails, probably from my mom, telling me never to make such a stupid decision like that again. I know I know I know. Maybe in hindsight it wasn't the smartest decision, but know that I'm here and safe in Holland, I have no regrets about what I did. In my defense, I took nothing from her bag because she just asked me to check in with her so that the weight of her huge bag could be distributed to our total weight allowance. She was nice and got me ahead of the line and checked in. I felt kind of bad though. There were two lines; the one I was in, which was moving much faster (12ft/50min) and then there was the other one (not even half that pace). The people in the slow line looked at me with evil stares... but everything was out of my control. After telling my new friend that I'm on my way to Amsterdam to go to a wedding, "Well... The Hague" I told her, she told me that she lives in The Hague and asked if I had a place to stay. "You can stay with me and my husband, he's meeting me in Amsterdam". She was an middle aged Moroccan woman. Her English wasn't great, but we could communicate the basics. "I can drive you to The Hague" she said. I love it... Only in Morocco. First, I shouldn't have accepted to help with claiming her luggage... but I did. Then, she invites me to stay with her at her house and give me a ride to The Hague... just because... no strings attached! Haha! I feel like this is what the world should be like... "Can you help me with this (luggage)?" We lived in a screwed up world where we fear that someone is going to have drugs in her baggage or a bomb or something. Then... she makes sure I have a place to stay, otherwise I will be invited to her home. This is not the world as it is today (ok.. maybe the minority... or places like Morocco), but this is the world as it ought to be. There's hope in the midst of long lines and frustrating budget airlines.

I know this is bad, but standing in line was actually entertaining. There was no order, no "lines", just a crowd of people and their luggage waiting to check in. 30 feet later, after waiting two hours, you get to check in, only to watch your bag get a handwritten luggage tag, then handed a boarding pass written in pen. Gotta love the advance in technology! Because there was no roped off line, like most places in the world, some people tried cutting and others were getting heated. Then, yelling started. Two ladies started going at it in Arabic, both infuriated. The Police were just standing and watching (classic). In Ramadan, a time that encourages non-fighting, fights break out. People get irritated and heated. Then, everyone starts gathering around, and the husbands grabbed their wives to keep them from full on killing each other. These people would have been arrested, or not let on the plane, at the very least. I felt privileged to see such action at the airport, so close to me! Free entertainment. But then again, I guess I can try to understand why people got so upset. The waiting sucks, you haven't eaten or drank anything since 3:30am, and you just want to get to Amsterdam. But this is Ramadan. A time for patience. What good is fasting from food, when you don't control any of your other emotions. However frustrating it was, I just remembered, "It's Ramadan. If I can learn anything from this month, it's patience. Patience. Patience." So, I continued to watch... and laugh (on the inside of course). :)