Vacation was really about to start for me. I was going to spend the rest of my summer in Gabon with my family. I was at the Cardinal Bernadin Gantin Airport of Cotonou, on my way to the airport immigrations office to fill the form. I greeted the immigration officer, filled the form and gave it to him. Upon receiving the form, he asked me to pay 5000 cfa, that’s about US$10. Well, it was not the first time that I was traveling through that airport so I was a bit surprised. “What’s the money for?” I asked him politely. He did not answer so I added : “If you can give me an explanation for the money, and produce a receipt, I don’t mind paying”. Embarrassed, he tried to make fun of me. He told one of his colleagues that I am trying to impress him by speaking big French. I was really angry because to me it was pure extortion. How can you just ask for money without any justification? Did he think I was afraid of him and I was going to pay? They finally let me go and I went through the rest of the formalities.

A weird thing happened when we boarded the plane. A man was occupying my seat so I notified the hostess and she told me I could seat anywhere I wanted. That was very surprising, I even started questioning myself about the airline company, Camair-Co. When I finally chose a seat and sat down, I noticed a guy with a ‘Qodesh Lighthouse Chapel’- branded bag. I have a few friends who go to Qodesh LCI in Ghana. When we stopped in Douala, I approached him. “Are you Ghanaian?” I asked. He explained to me that he is a Gabonese student in Benin but he had been to Ghana once for a Lighthouse Chapel conference. We then chatted for a while. From what I had heard about Camair-Co, I was expecting us to wait in Douala for at least one hour. I was agreeably surprised that after only 15 minutes in Douala they asked us to reembark onto the plane for the rest of the journey. I was writing this article when I heard “Chale, we are still together”. From the Gabonese accent , I knew it was my ‘Lighthouse’ friend and I waved at him.

Less that an hour later, we landed at Leon Mba (named after Gabon’s first president) Airport of Libreville. “Your first time in Gabon?” the immigration officer asked me as I showed him my Benin passport. “I grew up here” I answered with a certain sense of pride. After I was done with the immigration officer, it occurred to me that I did not have to fill a form. The immigration officer recorded all the information directly into the computer. “That is so much cooler than filling a form” I thought to myself. After going through the customs, I was outside. It was around 9 pm. I walked a few meters and I saw my dad, he was on the phone, probably talking with mom. It was obvious that he was not expecting me that soon. Great was his surprise when I stood in front of him and said: “Bonsoir Monsieur Adjaho”. On our way home, I couldn’t stop looking outside. Libreville was beautiful, the boulevard Du Bord De Mer was beautifully decorated. We were a few days away from August 17 th, Gabon’s Independence day. It is a shame that I did not have a camera with me.