Last taste of Africa

Normally goodbyes at the airport can be very sad but not today. As my parents were checking in they where informed that their bags were overweight and needed to pay around $150USD. Um, no I don’t think so. First off their bags where much heavier getting here then they were departing (they had brought tons of stuff for me, heavy stuff) and secondly my mom didn’t really have a carry on so some luggage could have been given to her. The airline was being very difficult and acted like the only option was to pay. No, I simply informed them that we would not be paying at all and that if necessary they needed to get my parent’s luggage off the plane and allow them to move some things around (why the heck would they load my parent’s bags without them being completely checked in, stupid). So after 30 minutes of waiting as they tried to locate my parent’s bags (yes, my worry-wart of a mother is freaking out at this point thinking she is going to miss her plane, there are tears involved) they bring us the bags and we move things around and my parent’s finally get checked in. Silly, all the luggage was still going on the plane, what’s the difference between the weight being in the overhead versus the luggage compartment, I just don’t get it. So all the stress and frustration of my parent’s boarding fiasco took away from the fact that I would not be seeing my parent’s for about a year and a half. Thanks South African Air for taking away my goodbye, hope it was worth it. I’m just bummed that my parent’s last impression of Africa was this miserable; I mean seriously what a horrible way to leave this wonderful country.