Manjula goes blogging...

I had just flown into Addis Ababa airport and was waiting for my next flight out to West Africa. It was past scheduled boarding time, and the crowd of mostly well built, colorfully dressed African women with large cloth bundles was getting restless. Eventually, a thin, meek man showed up in front of the boarding gate and announced “Ladies and gentleman, sorry for the delay, only a few more minutes…,” but he was cut short by the women who had gathered around him shouting, “No minutes, no more minutes, much delay already” - the man barely got in a few more words edgewise midst all the rumble and grumble. Finally the women got their way and the man requested women with children to board first. Elderly women pushed ahead announcing “I am pregnant.” The rush to board was explained by the fact that there were no pre-assigned seats and plenty of hand luggage to be stored. Midst these vivacious passengers, the unorthodox boarding procedure, all the jostling, and the impression of boarding a local bus in India, I realized working on sea turtles in Africa was going to be fun…