When I'm happy not to travel

It's essentially the ends of the earth, the island that I live on. Although you can reach it by plane, the process of getting from home in America to home in Africa is a several-day, several-plane and often several-problems/delays sort of affair.

To be fair, the problems normally occur only on the last leg of the journey-- getting from the international airport to my island. Other Africa-based flights are fairly predictable and rarely cause problems.

But the islands where I live are plagued by airline issues.
-- the government regulates different airlines differently
-- airlines refuse to pay taxes or landing fees until they're forcibly grounded
-- strikes occur when either government employees or airline employees aren't paid
-- maintenance can't be fully done on the islands, so sometimes a plane is out of country for a month at a time, limiting the possible number of flights
-- the government doesn't have its own plane, so airline planes are chartered at the last moment for official business
-- and then there are weather issues which delay planes.

For awhile we had two airlines that took turns not flying between the islands. Yes, you read that right. They were both supposed to fly inter-island, but it was a guessing game of which airline would be grounded when the time came to fly. One of those airlines, however, has now been grounded since January, leaving us with a single airline on which to fly.

And last week they closed their doors.

Well, okay, they essentially threw a fit. Official letters posted to the government, doors closed on all the offices, they declared that they were done. Those traveling inter-island were forced to take a boat, and the seas in this season are not very pleasant.

Fortunately, they've now started flying again. But that's life on these islands-- you never really know whether your purchased itinerary will be fly-able or not.

I'm glad I'm not going anywhere right now!