START OF MY JOURNEY
The first time I went back was 2004 (16 years after I left), I refused to go with the family the previous year thinking it would be awful, but after they described it I couldn't wait to go the next year.
Anyway, so we (my mother and younger brother) set off for the airport in the summer of '04 we flew with Daallo to Dubai - we planned to spend 2 days there - and then on to Hargeisa via Djibouti. The flight from London to Dubai was your average flight decent enough jet which they leased from another company, however the flight from Dubai to Djibouti was....er an 'experience'. We flew on an old Russian Antonov An-24* (late 50s early 60s
) aircraft, where most of the seats were either broken or didn't have seat belts maybe only a handful had seatbelts. The flight lasted about 4-5 hours but due to the bad conditions (random jolts due to turbulence) it seemed longer.*
SHORT STOP OVER IN THE FURNACE
We arrived at Djibout Ambouli airport very early in the morning (8am local time), I immediately noticed the searing heat. We all rushed into the terminal building which had some sort of air con. The building was small, however the landside area of the airport was quite large. The staff quickly directed us onto the next flight which was due to leave very soon - only those heading to hargeisa were to board this flight, all other destinations had to wait for the next one. Oh and I noticed they sold alchohol in the airport
We boarded the plane and waited for the old engines to start up, meanwhile we were being roasted in 50°C/122°F temperatures and the annoyed russian flight crew gave out bottles of water to us. There was a white dude on board, I tried to imagine how hot he must have felt if we did - maybe hell lol.
BACK IN THE MOTHERLAND
After another bumpy flight we reached hargeisa 45mins later. I noticed from the sky how dry and vast the land was. This was it I had landed back in the place were I fled 16 years ago, I didn't remember anything from this place and yet the inner bushman in me felt familiar with it. As soon as I stepped out of the aircraft, a strange smell filled my nostrils (along with face full of dust
). This strange smell smelt like I was on a farm, like the goat droppings.As I surveyed the vast emptiness of the landscape I was ushered into the building and relocated with my baggage. Inside the building was very loud, you had 10 or so men shouting on the top of their lungs I couldn't decipher what they were saying. As soon as I payed my entrance fee ($20) we grabbed our luggage and located our escort (a friend of a family member from london). We then made our way out of the building and what I saw startled me: I had seen a long fence surrounding the building with a large group of people (50 or so) on the other side shouting - it looked like a zoo with caged animals, whereas the reality was those were the locals trying to call out their arriving relatives
Our escort drove us to a nearby hotel (star) to spend a couple of days there just to get some rest before meeting the family. My mother insisted we did this because she found out a year before it was unwise to let the family know you were coming beforehand - imagine being jetlagged and all the extended family turn up to see you (or in real terms: to get their entitled $$)...........
