Tad's Life

Portugal has a national airline. They call it TAP Air Portugal. I don't speak Portuguese. I don't know what the TAP stands for really. Obrigada.

The other day it came up in my life twice.

First, that morning we went to the airport at 5 AM to pick up our friend, Noel, who was back from a summer in the US, ready to teach Dakar Academy students again! We arrived on time, but as usual had to wait a while for the whole arrival process: passport check, luggage pickup, customs inspection.

But we weren't alone. Cal from the IMB was there to pick up his son Dylan. Guy and his wife and daughter were there to get their son, Derrick. Both young men had spent the summer in the US. Our dear friend Jan was there to pick up the Wright family. So were Paul and his daughter, Erin. Erin and Emily are best friends, I believe. It was a regular gathering of North Americans at 5 AM at the airport!

As we waited, of course, we shot the breeze. It was a Delta flight that Noel and the others came in on, so we talked about the troubles with Delta lately. The Atlanta-Dakar-Nairobi plan apparently has fallen through and there have been numerous complications for Delta customers as that has developed. Cal said, as we finished this discussion, however, that he still prefers to come with TAP.

That caught my ear. Over the years as we've crossed the Atlantic coming and going from Senegal, Air Portugal, TAP, has been consistently the least expensive way to go. And so that's how we've usually gone. And that was Cal's reasoning, too. Cheap is hard to argue with! You have to do an all-day layover in Lisbon, but we've come to enjoy that.

So when Jane mentioned TAP that evening, it was a like the Lord was saying I just had to take photos and post this story.

We had had nems for supper. A nem is a Vietnamese spring roll. It's along the lines of an egg roll, except that my children would tell you that it doesn't taste anything like one. Jonathan doesn't understand what anyone sees in an egg roll. But he'll eat nothing but nems for an entire meal. Like he did that night.

Now we buy our nems already rolled up and fry them in oil ourselves. They come in packs of 10 or 12 and frozen. Somebody prepares them locally, I'm sure, but we usually get them from a store that has put them in the freezer section.

That night Jane said, "You won't believe this." The nems had come in small aluminum trays with plastic wrap covering them, looking very professional, like they were out of food processing plant. But when Jane emptied the second container she recognized the name stamped in the bottom of the tray.

Can you see it in this photo? No, I'll have to zoom in a bit.

There it is.

TAP PORTUGAL. With the logo and everything.

It was a reused supper container from a flight here from Lisbon.

Recycling, Senegal style.

// posted by Tad @ 12:34 PM