Think the TSA is Bad

My spouse and I recently completed a two week trip out of the United States to Tanzania, which is in east central Africa.  There is often a good deal of griping about the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) here in the United States, but this process is rather easy compared to what we had in Tanzania. 

My wife and I at Madison Airport on October 11 for our flight to Minneapolis

During our two week trip we had nine, yes nine, air flights.  We were on the large Boeing 787 Dream Liner down to a small 15 passenger Cessna, and some in between.  That means we went through a great deal of security, and it was more challenging than I would have thought. The worst was probably in Tanzania.  All air travelers are well aware of the TSA guidelines regarding liquids in a quart bag, and taking off shoes and belts for entry security to the secure waiting area.  Tanzania (and Amsterdam ) did not seem to care about the liquids in a plastic bag.  However, Tanzania put us through two screenings for our three internal flights. 

Mwanza Airport

Our first internal Tanzanian flight was out of Mwanza, on the south shore of Lake Victoria, and a place I think we would all rather forget.  We arrived at 2 pm, after a four hour drive, for a 4 pm flight only to find our flight to the capital of Dar Es Salaam was canceled and we were bumped to a 7:45 pm flight.  This meant we missed our connecting flight to Zanzibar was canceled.  Instead of relaxing pool side for the evening we found ourselves on nighttime flight.  On our departing flight out of the Dar Es Salaam to Amsterdam a man next to me said they really never have the four pm flight. Hind sight. 

Mwanza Airport

What we quickly noticed was that before you enter they check you passport, they then check your passport again and you put all bags through the scanner and we take off coats, belts, shoes, and empty pockets to go through security.  We then had to yet again show our passport and check our bag.  Just when we thought we were done, we found another check point.  At this spot we once again had to show our passport, our carry-on was again scanned and we of course had again removing belts, shoes, clean out pockets, and whatever else.  I wondered what they thought we could add to our bags after the first scan, but I don't know.  Yet, what we found amazing is that the second scan station they often opened our carry on which had not been requested at the first scan station.  At Mwanza, for example, they pulled out my camera, a little box I had with battery charger, extra battery and questioned that purpose.  They never made a comment about the liquid bag, but they did not know what to make of my Kindle.  I tried to explain it was an electronic book.  However, unlike my wife, I had always been able to make it through the person scanner.  Twice she was not so lucky, and had to be patted. 

Boarding bush plane for flight from Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar

The double scanning continued for all other internal flights.  Interestingly, there was only one scan and full security check at Dar Es Salaam for our flight to Amsterdam.  In Amsterdam we had to go through security before catching our flight to Detroit.  For some reason we did not have to do that for our flight change on our stop over in Amsterdam on the way to Kilimanjaro.  I had a small water bottle from the plane flight about half full of water and that went fine through the Amsterdam screening, but my wife, who was ahead of me, had the same partially full bottle, and they put it in front of some additional scanner. They then rifled through though her powder bag, and in the process they almost dumped all of its contents on the concrete floor.  We came to the conclusion that every other bag went through an more intense personal screening process.

Aboard Cessna Bush Plane

In Detroit we faced a long line at the immigration and customs gate.  Two international flights arrived at the same time and so a large number had to make their way through customs.  The line was extra long for us since our seats were only about five rows up from the back of the aircraft.  We waited about 35 or 40 minutes for our facial scans and a few questions.  After that we had to take our bags once again through security to find our flight gate for the last flight of our long trip to Madison. the nice thing was no hold up at security as it served only those needing to make a connecting flight after using customs.

Boeing 787 Dream Liner in Amsterdam
We are awaiting boarding to Kilimanjaro Airport

In retrospect, I think I should have figured something would be unique in Tanzania for when we arrived and exited at Kilimanjaro they had us place our bags through a scanner. Scanning our bags before we leave the airport was new to me.   In Tanzania, but for our exit flight from Dar to Amsterdam, all other flights were loaded and unloaded directly to the tarmac. No, I did not get down to kiss the ground.  The next time one wants to complain about TSA here in the United States, perhaps you can think of the blog post and what the experience is like elsewhere.  In the end it was nice to arrive home yesterday evening. 

Flight Statistics Just before Landing at Kilimanjaro Airport

Note: While waiting at Detroit we found out our niece was at the airport on her way to a conference in New Orleans.  We had a brief meeting as both flights boarded and were to pull from the gate about the same time.