The Final Leg - Lagos to Jos:

You’d think that a short hop within a country couldn’t be that difficult. Well you’d be just as wrong as I was. I DID get to Jos, On the flight we’d booked, but it wasn’t a slam-dunk.

The prelude to the problems was that with all the delays leading up to this leg of the journey, previous flights had been booked and canceled – so when I arrived in Lagos, there was not a booked flight – just a credit from the previously booked and canceled flight.

So, first order of business, get a flight booked (my friend working from Jos), and some kind of documentation to me (in Lagos) that I could show at the check-in desk.

My guesthouse had wireless internet, and a printed e-ticket or notice of change would be good enough. Easy, right? Nope.

As I’ve noted, I couldn’t get into the email address we’d been using in our correspondence, so I had to give a new email address on the phone – a sketchy business at the best of times, and worse over a poor cellphone connection. Secondly, after an hour of trying with different passwords and locations, I determined that the wireless internet in the guesthouse was not working, And that the young woman at the desk knew this and was just going through the motions of helping me until I stopped trying….sigh….

By this time it was too late to get our driver/handler to get something, so I’d have to rely on getting it off the internet café at the airport, and printing it there – assuming, of course that everything worked, mere hours before I needed the document.

Watched ‘football’ on the telly (saw Man United clobber some poor team 7-1), started watching ‘Waterworld’ until somebody decided to change the direction that the Satellite TV antennae faced - and now I don’t know if Kevin Costner ever found dry land.

Slept fitfully (not because of Kevin), got up, showered (used the pillowcase for a towel, because the guesthouse didn't provide them, but didn’t know that), re-packed my bag, did the final check of the room to ensure I had everything, and went downstairs just as my ride arrived to take me to the airport. Very auspicious, I thought. Any day that starts out this in sync was has got to go well.

Well, it did, but not without hiccups. To make a long story short:
- the airport to Jos was not the same one as the airport from Benin - and the Jos airport didn't have internet cafes. Crap. Fortunately they were very close to each other, so a detour to the airport with internet cafes wasn’t a deal-breaker;

- At the internet café, now my work email wouldn’t open either. Screwed. Well, maybe my personal email works today – and, yes, it did!! Got the document and printed it ((total cost $10) In spite of the expense, I’m ranking this a minor miracle, if only because I did put my head in my hands at one point, and I think that the thoughts going through my mind would qualify as ‘the prayer of a desperate man’;

- Went into the airport and got my boarding pass, and was told, with that same half-hearted wave I’d seen in Benin, that the gate for Jos was ‘on the other side’. Well, she must have meant the other end of the airport, so my handler and I proceeded there. We got interrupted by a young man who knew my handler, who told us, no ‘the other side’ meant what was formerly the First Class Lounge – outside, on the other side of the terminal complex. Oh, okay. That was a change, having a problem solved before I knew there was one – and glad for that I was.

- In this new lounge there were line-ups too, but I had my boarding pass, so was going to ignore them until the new fellow said – ‘no, that’s not your boarding pass’, and got into the line-up to get it for me. The printer was down in his line-up so he had to change line-ups. But eventually I had the boarding pass. I texted my friend to say that things looked good – hoping that wasn’t an invitation to bad luck;

- Said goodbye to my handler and his friend, and walked into the waiting room – with restaurants where I was assured that I could get breakfast – an assurance all the more meaningful given that the last time I’d eaten or drank was late afternoon the day before;

- I put my two bags on the scanner belt, and walked through the metal detecting scanner – and it virtually screamed! I’d left my old style metal-cased phone in my pocket. But NO-one took any notice of me – not so much as a raised eyebrow! Okay, don’t make a fuss, just grab your stuff and go.

- But, no. For the first time on the whole trip, someone took an interest in the gifts that a friend had sent along with me for my ‘friend’ in Nigeria. And the list she’d attached had long ago fallen off. I had it somewhere and started looking for it, mumbling something about an iPod – which clearly wasn’t all that there was in the package. As I incompetently fumbled for the list, she said it was okay, and let me go. Well, the 'I'm just an bumbling tourist' strategy does work in Nigeria – just not consistently.

- I had a ‘breakfast’ comprised of rice with four over-cooked beef cubes, Nescafe with condensed cream, and water. The water did hit the spot;

- The flight was delayed – with NO ANNOUNCEMENT! Which is Not helpful for a ‘6’ on the Enneagram – anxiety is our lifelong companion. Fortunately I found others who were also on the flight to Jos, so I knew I hadn’t missed my flight. Eventually we get that boarding call – more than a ½ hour after the 10:55 scheduled departure. I texted my friend to say I’d be an hour late.

- I got into one of the lines on the tarmac where we were to be patted down one more time, and was told by a gentleman in the line beside me that I should join his line. A perfectly reasonable suggestion, since the line I was in was for women only. One of the drawbacks of being near the front of a line is that you don’t always have all the information you need.

- As I shifted lines, I saw that the security people were wearing rubber gloves – just how intimate was this pat-down going to be? I’d just two days earlier read Dave Barry’s account of his overly intimate experience with a security officer in an American airport after he'd refused the body sonar. But, it was okay – nothing requiring me retreating into my internal ‘safe place’;

- The flight was uneventful. My friend was waiting at the airport. We drove to where I would be staying. They fed and watered me. I offered the gift of some maple candy to the family, which was very well received. And now I’ve finished writing about my adventures. Life's good - I'm where I'm supposed to be for the next few days.

All's Well that Ends Well.