Earlier this past week, I celebrated 1 year of being an immigrant in the land of the Raptors. I use the word celebrate loosely because it was just me posting stories on my Instagram reminiscing on how far I have come. This was a good time for me to reflect on the road that led me here and how it has been thus far.
I never wanted to leave Nigeria, it took my sister forever to convince me. I had a decent job and my business was thriving, I did not see any need at all to want to start over in a strange land. However, she advised me to just start the process and have the residency just as an option.I am glad she did push me because when I saw the state of the country as time went by, it was the viable option for me. I completed my MBA to boost my score in the pool (yea, I did not do it because I loved to read) and also to have a little bragging right. I entered the pool at the worst possible time, just a month before COVID struck. Prior to this, it took me over 1 year to have my certificate assessed by IQAS. I need to do a major shout out to my sister because she made register the very day my assessment returned, and I got a nomination the same day. My score was not drawn from the pool for another 9 months after then so I would have just been doubly frustrated. To cut a very long and agonizing story short, I got my PPR in 2022. It took 2 whole years from nomination whereas the regular timeline pre-COVID was about 6 months on average.The entire process though took me about 5 years cumulatively, a ridiculously long time to be committed to a thing you never even wanted to do.
From the moment I got the PPR, I started guarding my passport very jealously. I had to travel to the UK a month before I landed in Canada and I almost did not want to go with my passport. I refused to be the poster child for “stories that touch”. I imagined scenarios where I misplaced my passport in the UK and couldn’t go back home or even land in much-anticipated Canada. Now if you thought I was protecting my passport, imagine how much more I was protecting myself. In the weeks that led up to my departure, I stopped going out to both relevant and irrelevant places. If you watch a lot of Nollywood movies, you would know the paranoia of something dastardly happening to people just at the time they were supposed to do something major with their lives. I would be in the Uber in Lekki and be checking all side mirrors incase anyone was coming to attack me or kidnap me.
After this phase came the period of 3 days to my departure, where I would just be crying randomly at the thought of leaving all that I know. The day before my flight, I had to go drop all my work effects and it truly dawned on me that I was jobless. For effect, I have not been out of a job since my last year in uni and this was a new feeling that I had no idea how to handle. I was also crying because I would be leaving my mum behind, I prayed that wouldn’t be the last time I would see her alive. I prayed that my friends would be safe even if I did not see them in person. I worried about little things that were not on my radar up until this defining moment.
The 25th of June, 2022 dawned bright and clear and the events of this day is the real tea of this blog post. I said my goodbyes at home and I may have cried a bit. This was interesting to me because when my brother was relocating a year before, I did not shed a single tear as a baddie. I got to the airport and I got a reaffirmation that flying Egypt Air was the absolute worst decision I made in 2022, the year of our Lord. See, I always knew Egypt Air was trash and vowed never to fly with them again but in this case, I had to because I flew with my friend who wanted to do a return ticket and Egypt Air was the cheapest for that. I was reluctant at first but later was okay with it because it was the last time and thought how bad could it really get?
We got to the airport check-in line and my first shock came when they said they did not allow handbag carry on. You could only have one single hand luggage and there was no room for a personal bag. I said ‘ah, motimo pe awon Egypt Air yi o gbadun, mo ti mezz up’. Thankfully, my sister followed me to the airport so I was there sweating like a goat and moving things around in 3 different boxes. I had to stuff my laptop bag into my hand luggage and clutch my documents with one hand just to be sure I had just a single piece of luggage. I moved some of my things into my friend’s boxes, she had enough sense to anticipate the madness and already paid ahead for an extra suitcase.
We got to the check-in and another shock, we had both paid for seats beside each other but the ticket attendant politely told us that we wouldn’t be getting that because Waka freaking Now did not put the payment through or something equally silly. I was already exhausted at this point and just told the woman to give us any random seats close to each other. She did and we proceeded to board the plane. We got on board and very surprisingly, all the over head luggage space was full. Another surprise for me here because if everyone truly brought one carry-on luggage, why is there no space for everyone’s stuff?. The flight attendant told me to hold on while he checked the business class area for space. Alas, no space was found and at about 5 minutes or so before the flight was meant to take off, one woman wearing the FAAN jacket came in and started shouting at the few of us with the luggage issue, unprovoked too. She said we had to check in our hand luggages and were to check if we had anything that may be stolen or is personal in there and take it out. I was irritated at this point because it is a hand luggage, so it definitely had personal effects. We were moved to the entrance of the plane, I opened the box to bring out my laptop, wallet, and everything else that I deemed personal. In the process, my document envelope fell and my things were strewn across the floor. All the while, this woman kept shouting at us to hurry up because the plane had to leave.
I got back to my seat and was so mad with rage. My friend then asks me if I got my passport at least, I checked my envelope and could not find my passport. Double yikes. I ran back to the entrance to tell them I had to check my hand luggage for my passport, I recalled throwing it in there when we passed the last security check just before boarding. The attendants said they could not retrieve my bag. I said “I literally just gave this bag to you 2 minutes ago, what the hell do you mean by you cannot retrieve it, MY PASSPORT IS IN THERE!!!”. No one listened to me, I was shouting and crying ugly tears at this point. I have never seen an airline with so many non-challant attendants as Egypt Air. Someone in business class approached me and helped me translate my ordeal to the attendants in Arabic (btw, they understood English and probably were pretending becasue they did not care) and still nothing. The eventually told me to go sit down and that it will be sorted. I quickly dropped a message for my siblings to let them know that our village people have abandoned all their pressing duties and were now working full time on my case.
The plane took off before I could even tell my siblings the full gist. We were air-borne, I had no internet to connect to family and all I could do was pray and cry. I was wondering how to get my passport, how to check in into the connecting flight without a travel document. Even though both legs of the flight was the same carrier, I knew first hand how this could be an issue since they are very clearly incompetent. I had a migraine for 5 straight hours from Lagos to Egypt. The chief air hostess approached me mid-flight, gave me a form to fill and then said my luggage will be retrieved upon arrival at Cairo Airport. This gave me a bit of relief and I felt my headache reduce a bit.
We arrived Cairo and we had a layover of about 4 hours. I was taken directly from the plane to a desk where my issue was supposed to be sorted. I got to the counter and gave the person I met there all that was requested. The guy told me it would take about 30 minutes for the bag to be located. I was okay with that and just sat somewhere close by waiting on him. I checked on this man every half hour for about 2 hours and he kept telling me to wait. At about 1 hr 30 minutes to the end of the lay over, I went over to the counter to explain to someone else, this time their boss I presume and this man told me to wait again. After another 30 minutes without any result, my friend got angry and she went back again and this time we were all shouting. The annoying boss man behind the desk, a very very racist goat, might I add, did not dignify us with a response. I dragged one innocent guy behind me who spoke Arabic and asked him to help me beg these guys because my flight was boarding in an hour. He spoke to the boss and from the look on his face when he got the response, I could tell that the man said vile things about us. The look of disgust and disdain on his face everytime was telling of how horrible he was as a person. He even threatened to get us arrested for shouting. To cut a very long abusive story short, someone evenutally arrived with the bag at about 45 minutes to departure. The person had the absolute audacity to tell me that “next time, don’t put your passport in your checked-in bag”. I took a deep breath when I heard this foolish statement, I contemplated it and did not respond. I decided that Egypt was not and will never be where I want to be arrested for any crime if I had opened my mouth to reply.
We got to Canada, check-in was smooth except for when we passed the place we were meant to pick our luggage from. We had to exit the airport, go inside to “departures” and contact Egypt Air to give us a personnel that would follow us to retrieve the luggage from “arrivals”. By this time, I did not want to ask what else could possibly go wrong, incase the luggage grew wings and just flew away because all the unthinkable had happened.
Few things to note, while I was on the flight, I was not even certain that my passport was in the bag because my load spilled in front of the plane. Part of the cause of my migraine was the recurring thought that my passport could be lying on the filthy tarmac in Lagos. When I got to Egypt, no one in my family could reach me because the airport had no wifi. Thankfully, I had my UK sim still in my phone and my brother was able to reach me very briefly. He sent me a copy of my visa page on my passport that I had shared with him before. In that moment, I was wondering what good that would do, did he expect the immigration officer to stamp my forehead in lieu of an actual passport just because I had the screenshot of a visa? I was wondering if I will be the first person to get deported at the Canadian airport for lack of a passport. Going back home to face Bubu just because I made the stupid mistake of buying a ticket from a racist airline whose track record of madness I already knew but decided to risk regardless. Dunsin Oyekan’s music playing in my ears all through the wait helped me keep it together because I couldn’t even pray anymore.
To draw the curtain on this, it was an eventful day(s) and I was so grateful to finally see my friend smiling at me at the arrivals to welcome me home. I will not tell anyone not to fly Egypt Air but just know that whatever you see on the journey, it can be worse off. Their staff are rude, condescending and ill-mannered.
I will write about my 1 year experience in Canada in the second phase of this because this post is way longer than I planned.
Until then; love, light and amala.
- IQAS- International Qualifications Assessment Service
- PPR – Passport request
- Shege- extreme and unpleasant situations
I can only but imagine. Thankful it’s all in the past now. Egypt Air is not even on my radar as an airline to use again. I no kuku get strength.
Omo x 100000000000000
God abeg!!!!!
GOD ABEG!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe what you went through haaaa olopa lo ma ko everybody???????? Funny enough, I travelled with the same Egypt Air and mine was uneventful. We thank God for journey mercies????????????????
Lovely write up
???????? – hypertension pro max
Reading about this story is a comic relief but I can’t even begin to imagine the hysteria you must have gone through with the whole airline ordeal. Thank God you can laugh through it now. Happy 1year canniversary babe
Glad you can laugh about it now and happy anniversary Femi.
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Not me having anxiety over a past event. Point taken, NEVER fly Egypt air! I’m so glad everything worked out. Congratulations on your one year anniversary and may the land continue to yield for you.
Happy Anniversary Femi!!! Such an interesting read. Lesson “Never fly Egypt Air” to him that has ears let him hear
Wow!! I can imagine your anxiety flying off the ceiling. I’m happy you can look back and laugh about it. I can’t wait for Part 2.
Bad day devil drank plenty water.
To Jesus be all the glory.
Give us part 2.