Anything Can happen.....Anything

In the past week, I have learned something essential: anything can happen. Last Friday, relieved to finally be released by my physicians to return to Ghana, I boarded an Afriqiyah Airlines flight from London, headed to Tripoli with a 2 hour layover and planned to be in Accra within 10 hours. About the time we were supposed to land in Libya, an announcement was made in Arabic then a much more brief one in English. All I could understand was that we were landing somewhere other than Tripoli due to weather. I assumed it was a nearby airport in Libya. As we landed, I could see an amazing landscape with white cliffs plunging into the sea. Didn't remember this when I landed in Tripoli on my way to London. It was not until we were on the ground that I finally figured out we were in Malta. I had to rack my brain to recall where, exactly, Malta is. We got off the plane and filed into the Malta airport. No information about how long we might be there, what it might mean to connecting flights....nothing. After a moment of extreme irritation and anxiety, I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I was on Afriqiyah Airline (Libyan owned) and, therefore, was now operating under a totally different set of norms than I would expect from a US or European company. I took a deep breath and endeavored to make the most of it. After 6 hours and no information, all of a sudden, everyone went to the gate and we were ushered back onto our plane, headed for Tripoli. Once in Tripoli, most passengers found that their connecting flights had been held for them. All of them, that is, except the flight to Accra. It had left an hour earlier with a total of 7 passengers aboard. That left 35 of us stranded in Tripoli. After much confusion, we were told that Afriqiyah would arrange for a hotel and we'd get the next flight out to Accra. I'm thinking that would be the following morning. Wrong. That would be in 2 days!! Our passports were taken from us and all Afriqiyah officials left - presumably to get us visas. By 2:30am, I finally asked the only "official" I could find what was happening. I was told in broken English that there was "no hotel" and "no passports". I assessed the situation: I am the only American in the airport. American and Libya do not exactly have diplomatic relations. I do not have a passport. This is not good. Thankfully, Grameen has a great emergency support system in place, I contacted them and then got an emergency contact for the US Embassy in Tripoli. Finally, at 6am, the Afriqiyah officials reappeared and we were all ushered through customs and out to await transport to a hotel - without our passports. We were told we would get them back when we returned to the airport in 2 days for departure. They didn't want us "staying". Not likely I'll be emigrating to Libya.


I met a fellow passenger who is a pilot for Emirates and knew Tripoli. We spent the two days exploring Tripoli and learning a lot about the history and politics. Libya has some of the most intact Roman ruins in the world and was formerly an Italian colony. It felt amazing - I knew that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be an American, in Qadaffi Libya, roaming around freely for 2 days admiring the ruins and the coastline, seeing how obviously progress has stopped in the past 40 years of Qadaffi's rule and noticing how much money must be spent on printing and erecting Qadaffi images of prosperity and African Unity everywhere and how little is spent on basic human needs.

Finally, nearly 72 hours after leaving London, I arrived back to Ghana to two very, very happy children, their relieved father and 2 puppies who were so excited they piddled when they saw me. Just glad it was the pups and not the kids who piddled!

Less than 2 days after arriving safely in Accra, I learned of the Afriqiyah airline crash on the approach to Tripoli. It stopped my heart, felt way too close for comfort and reminded me how very fragile life is and how blessed I was to be back safely with my kids.