New York, New York

The last thing I expected to be doing tonight was walking the streets of NYC with a friend of Stephanie's (and now a friend of mine as well). I expected to be sleeping on a flight from Houston to London instead because, well, I had a ticket booked to do just that.
I walked up to the British Airways ticket counter at IAH Terminal D to begin my trip to Africa.
After waiting for thirty minutes at the front of the line to check in, I overheard other would be passengers stating that BA flight 96 had been cancelled the previous two nights. And as fate would have it, it was also cancelled June 16. The ticket agent was trying to find another way to get me to London Heathrow so I could catch my connecting flight to Entebbe the following evening.

What she came up with was this:
Fly United to Newark and land in New Jersey at 1:30am.
Get a cab to JFK and fly out at 8am to London.
Land in London at 7:45pm and catch my flight to Entebbe at 9:15pm.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? That sounded like the worst flight itinerary in history.

I asked her for a travel voucher for the cab in Newark since I had limited cash that was reserved for South Sudan ($US bills from 2006 or later). She said that would be no problem. She was making a note on her computer for my flight, she said. She was also typing in a note to ask that I be given access to the BA travel lounge since I would be traveling all night and sleeping in the JFK airport.

So I picked up all my bags (with a torn muscle in my back, mind you).. and walked them over to Terminal E to check in as soon as possible. The ladies at the United counter said that since I was flying domestic and my bag was overweight, I would have to pay $100. I explained to them that I was flying to London and I had gotten involuntarily re-routed through Newark, but that I was booked on a missionary ticket and had THREE bags that I was allowed to check free of charge. They said they did not care, I was now flying domestic on United now and not British Airways. I started crying uncontrollably at which point they said that if I had a panic attack, I would not be allowed to board the plane anyway. I got my mom to circle around and drop off an extra bag for me so at least I would not have to pay an overweight baggage fee ($100) - even though I had to pay for two bags now ($60).

Turns out, I did not have any information on a travel voucher from the BA ticket agent. No card for customer relations to contact. Nothing.

Boarded my flight while the tears streamed silently down my face. How was I going to get to JFK? I type a plea on Facebook asking any of my friends if they would be around Newark at 1:30 and would maybe drop me off at JFK? I texted a good friend asking him if he would be willing to host me in New York for a few hours. "The night is still up in the air," he said. He said he would not go to New Jersey. Right before my flight took off, I got a call from my bestie, Stephanie. Would I let her contact a friend of hers in New York who would most assuredly pick me up from Newark and transport me safely to JFK? I hesitated, not wanting to be a burden to someone that I did not know. But I had been praying fervently and I consented. She said she wasn't sure if he would text her back since he was probably working, but she would give it a try.

As soon as I landed in Newark, I got a text from Stephanie with Sabir's phone number and confirmation that he would be waiting to pick me up. Praise God.
Sabir was wonderful to me. As we were driving from Newark into Manhattan, he asked me if I wanted to take a quick tour of New York at night. Um... of course I want to do that. He took me to Times Square, NBC broadcasting, Rockefeller Plaza, Broadway, Grand Central Station, and Brooklyn... at which point I took this shot overlooking Manhattan. We ate seaweed salad and watched the rats scurry by underfoot. It was the most unexpected and entertaining layover I've ever had. Thank you again for your hospitality, Sabir. I do not know what I would have done if you had not been willing to pick up a stranger from the airport in the middle of the night. My attitude would most certainly have been sour and grumpy and downright resentful.

I saw the Statue of Liberty from afar and then we stopped by the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island en route to JFK around 5 in the morning.

As I arrived at JFK, the BA ticket agent said there was no record of any travel lounge request from Houston and therefore, they would not honor it. I was also going to have to pay extra for my bags since I had two now. I begged them to let me have my original 3 pieces of baggage since that was on my original ticket. She consented.. and she threw in some aisle seats for the remainder of my flights as well. (Thank you....)

At least this one gave me the customer relations contact information so I could rightfully complain.

Exhausted, I fell asleep as soon as I sat down in my seat on the flight to London. Apparently I snorted myself awake a few times. Sorry, fellow travelers.

*I had to degrade the quality of this photo a lot in order to get it to upload here in Kajo-Keji, S. Sudan. The bandwidth is not on my side these days.