Airport baggage pickup

As I walked through the doors, I noticed only one baggage claim area. But more than that, I noticed the swarm of people and bags around the conveyor belt. Immediately I’m thinking, hopefully mine haven’t come off yet. But before we get to that. When I walked through the doors to the luggage claim area, I thought there was some major event going on. There were people everywhere.

Standing next to the belt for your luggage to come by is worse than in any American airport I’ve ever been to. At least there the majority of the folks won’t walk into a space and literally move you out of their way. After about ten minutes my luggage came across the conveyor, I picked it up and walked over to a wall so that I could organize myself. I definitely needed to do this, because at this point I felt like a ball of “humid mass.”

Now about the mass of people. Well, imagine something like one of those old cheesy films about, oh, kickboxing or karate, or something of that sorts. And as you walk into the arena, there are people in every conceivable space. Looking. Yelling. Staring. Just doing whatever. Now take that imagination, and replace the faces with those of Cameroonians. You got it!

I mean there were people all over; on the mezzanine looking down, shouting. On the floor area surrounding the conveyor. Just outside the exit doorways; yelling. It was waaaaaay too much for me. Believe it took at least fifteen (15) minutes of walking back and forth between the exit doors and the wall before I mustered enough nerve to go out into the screaming crowd.

However, before going outside you had to pass through the checkpoint. There was this ceremonial “look through the luggage” that wouldn’t be so bad if the lines were organized to get through them. There were people jumping in and out of the lines like someone was giving away something for free.

After about another five to ten minutes of this, I made it out unscathed. See my terror was not in having my bag rifled through, it was in how was I going to get it closed again. (SIDEBAR: see, when someone in the PC tells you to bring only what’s on the list. Do it. They’re telling you that for a reason. There’s no telling how you’re getting from point A to point B; and you don’t wanna be a typical American “tourist” with luggage galore, or even overstuffed luggage that you can’t get in and out of quickly).

Well I made it out, and only needed to figure out where to meet Akilah. Hmmm?