Friday Night at Robertsfield International

I rushed off to Robertsfield International (RIA) to pick up Dave who was coming in from a three week absence while off “vacationing” in Canada. His flight was to come in at 6:50pm. I arrived just around 7pm. The weird thing was that as I was pulling up to the airport I didn’t see any sign of a commercial airliner. The only massive hunks of steel that were to be seen were two or three UN transport planes and about a dozen or so UN choppers. What I didn’t know is that the plane that was supposed to be arriving in Brussels from Abidjan to carry Dave and many others to Liberia was three to four hours late. Once the plane finally left Brussels it bypassed all the stops along the way and b-lined straight to Monrovia. All passengers going to either Dakar or Freetown would be dropped off on the way back to Brussels. Imagine how they felt! Anyways, so here I am at RIA with nothing to do for three hours not knowing whether the plane was coming in or not. It was only until after Dave arrived that I found out about the mix up and delays that were in Brussels. Trying to find out if a flight is on time in Liberia is like trying to ask a bunch of blind men which way is North. Nobody really knows what is going on. There was a highlight of the evening, if waiting at the airport wasn’t exciting enough. A bunch of Liberian Kru ladies, originally from Grand Kru County and all dressed in blue and white, who were apparently waiting for a man from the U.S. who built them a church a number of years ago, proceeded to pass the time by singing and dancing “African Style” for the whole three hours we were waiting there. There is something in the blood of Africans that allows them to sing and dance like its going out of style…but for three hours straight? They sung both songs in their native Kru language as well as the occasional one in English. Its times like this that I’ll miss about being in Liberia, not waiting at the airport not knowing what is going on, but the raw talent of these African ladies.