A Nigerian man has taken to social media to celebrate his two year anniversary of moving to a foreign land with his wife.
The dad identified on Twitter as Papa Burrito @bule_jr recounted how he went straight to the airport from the office on the day he travelled out.
In a Twitter thread, he shared the challenges encountered as well as blissful moments shared with his wife and daughter.
In his words; ”Two year anniversary of my japa. Left Nigeria straight from the office and my 18hr flight to Toronto turned into a 120hr/5day/4flight journey that felt like it would never end..
My flight was the penultimate flight before Nigeria shut its airspace due to Covid.
As you can see, I was already wearing masks and I remember Q & I getting funny looks from people who thought we were doing too much with masks.
Anyway, we landed in Istanbul and were to board a plane to Heathrow and fly to Toronto, only for us to get stopped at Check-in that we couldn’t fly as Canada was only allowing those with PR cards to land and since we only had a COPR, we were not exempted from the ban.
Remember, Buritto is 5 months in the oven and Kemi was so tired. We begged and pleaded but the plane took off and we were left stranded. This crucially was the last flight to LHR as Turkey airspace was gradually closing.
So we cannot return to Nigeria, can’t proceed to Canada, we were just there, stuck. Without a place to call home.
To make it worse, we were treated like shit by Turkish officials.
After about 14hrs of standing, we found a nice guy who took us to a hotel inside the airport.
I started making frantic calls to Nigerian & Canadian Embassies, we made the decision to fly to Addis the next night as their airspace was open and Canada had announced that the restrictions preventing me from travelling would be lifted that week.
So I just had to be in a place that had constant flights and I could fly as soon as we were able to.
So we got tickets, flew to Addis and they put us in the quarantine hotels around the airport, waiting on Uncle Justin to shake body.
Anyway, on the 27th, I woke up at 1am, and saw that the restrictions had been lifted, called the police to confirm I could leave and didn’t have to complete quarantine. They confirmed, as long as they could verify my ticket
Tried to buy my ticket, my Naija bank card failed.
Called my sweet sister-in-law @SortOfKnownO who bought our tickets so quickly, she (and everyone tbh) were so damn worried and apprehensive.
Anyway, you think my travails are done? Lmao.
Get to the airport and while checking-in, they ask us to stand aside as we aren’t eligible to fly. I politely tell them that the restrictions have been lifted but somehow they hadn’t received the latest info and said we couldn’t fly.
There were like 20 students like me too. Eventually, after a lot of back and forth we were allowed to check-in, and leave.
Landed in Toronto on the 28th and was just so thankful the ordeal was over.
Got to my Airbnb and crashed for like.. 17Hawwaaaassss.
First picture we took when we woke up and realized we were safe and sound.
And more importantly, the bun in the oven was kicking just as well.
Speaking of that bun in the oven, she’s 20months old on Friday and loves her rainboots with lights.
Opin lò pari cinema.”
