Preparing to Land

Imagine this: It's five days before Xmas. Nineteen people, mostly Capetonians, arrive at Bloemfontein airport to catch a plane back to Cape Town. They all know each other in a very specific context - they dance together. They have been dancing with 120 others for 5 days. Its not your ordinary kind of gyrate on the dance floor to rock or fast stepping twirls like salsa or even the erotic engagement of the tango, although it can encompass any of these. Its Biodanza - a way of freely expressing oneself to music and it includes contact and sensuality.

We are in the departure lounge. Our departure time comes and goes - we are not called. Eventually we discover that if only our plane had not switched its engines off, we could have taken off. But since they did switch off, we can't. There is a defective part for which we will have to wait. We begin to get to know each other in ways we never have before - about our lives and work. We have quite a bit of fun. At about the time we should have arrived in Cape Town, SAA finally decides to put us up at a hotel for the night and we will have to fly to Johannesburg (JHB) on the morrow to get to Cape Town - a route which is counter-intuitive to any normal modes of thinking other than that of airlines. This is devastating news for one or two (like some Italians who have to make their connection to Rome for Xmas) but not really for most of us - it being the holiday season.