One of the reasons why I enjoy international flights is because of the interesting people I get to meet. It’s almost as if it’s the default now to meet interesting people if you book an international flight (n.B. this has been my experience mostly for travel outside of North America). It is also a lovely precursor to what should be a meeting of interesting people in the destination country.
Here are the people I met on my Egypt Air flight:
An older Nigerian Igbo couple basically didn’t leave my side at the boarding gate when they realized I was Nigerian (how they realized this, I am still not too sure). Once we got to the layover city, they asked if I was going to Abuja. I informed them no that my destination is Nairobi and wished them a safe travel onward.
Myself and a babe from New Dehli, India started getting to talk whilst looking for the immigration counter at the layover city. Apparently she was returning home for good after her inability to find work in her dream career of theater acting. I wanted to give her a hug.
The guy I sat next to on the flight insisted he is from Paris. Upon a few more “where are you really from”s he shared that he is of Mali origin. We spoke about different topics ranging from the pandemic, to body image, to the coup amongst other things.
An elderly man that only spoke only Arabic was meant to return to a specific counter and so another man was using his best English to try to explain this. Soon as someone pointed out he speaks only Arabic, that same man switched to Arabic to explain. The elderly man still didn’t follow the directions.
I enjoyed this aspect of travel and appreciate the interesting people I meet along my way.
Funmi Oke
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