Dirty Little Fokker

RTW – 3 Oct 2008
Our Fokker 50 to Addis landed an hour late. As before, the cleanliness was poor, especially apparent in the stained and spent pillows. With all on board, the cabin door was still open; they revved the left engine to a high ear-shattering speed while the right engine twirled a couple times just outside my window. After twenty minutes, they rolled out a rusty gangplank to the right engine. A young fellow in airline garb climbed up and opened the engine housing. A half a dozen assorted men stood back watching. The ‘mechanic’ was armed with a screwdriver and an old pair of pliers. During his twenty minutes fussing inside the hatch, the onlookers cajoled and smiled, leaving me to wonder the value of his effort. The operation was over, but I was concerned about the prognosis. None-the-less we were off to Gondar at what seemed to be a lower altitude, and they never turned off the fasten seatbelt sign. On the ground, I thought of getting off with those scheduled but held tight, and more souls came aboard. They went through more engine revving, then shut it down and said we would have to wait two hours for a new plane from Addis. Whew, the masses and I were pleased. In the terminal (I should use that word), I was sipping a local beer, and they called us to board the plane after twenty minutes – yeah, the same little Fokker. I was last to come aboard. Well, maybe some good spirit from those ancient churches will sustain our plane. We had one more stop in Bahar, where a nurse from New Jersey sat next to me. She had been working in AIDS clinics all over Ethiopia for the last five years. We held a good conversation to keep my mind off the right engine.