Or maybe not leaving Cape Town

Well, yesterday didn't go as planned. Today is not going as planned either.

We are still in Cape Town. We arrived at the airport 26 hours ago. We boarded, leaving our last 40 rand in the Rotary club donation box as we walked on to the plane. Then we sat for 2+ hours waiting. Then we got off the plane and waited at the gate for another 4 hours. Then we were very, very slowly loaded onto buses and brought to an overwhelmed hotel. At 10pm we ate dinner from the hotel buffet. (They hadn't planned on 400 angry hungry people coming at 10pm, so it was an interesting meal). Then bed. This morning no word about the flight. A few hours ago they released a list of some passengers who were leaving. We were not on that list.

This would all be pretty run of the mill travel fiasco except for one tiny little detail: The plane came from Buenos Airis. It is full of Argentinians who were not planning on seeing Cape Town, but simply stopping briefly on their way to KL. They do not speak English. They do not have South African power adapters. They don't have warm clothes and they are PISSED. They are so pissed the following things happened last night at the terminal

1. They all started banging on the doors of the gate yelling

a few minutes later

2. They all started singing and clapping and chanting

a bit later

3. Something serious enough happened that 14 (that was my count) police officers were dispatched to manage the crowd. 14 police offerers, in full get-up, making a human line between the Argentinians and the airport personnel/gate. Those officers escorted us (all 417 of us) through immigration, baggage and onto the buses. It took hours and hours.

I asked an Argentinian man with whom we have become friendly to explain what was going through the protesters minds. Did they really think that they would get a non-functioning plane into the air? (as Andrew pointed out, it may be able to take off, but we would like it to be able to both take off and land) Did they not realize they were in South Africa, the country that knows how to do mass action? You can't out mass action the South Africans. They have been there and they have done that. He asked me to please remember that I am below the equator-- do not attempt to apply logic.