So now we wait

Yesterday was Covid PCR test day. 

We are flying to Albania on Sunday evening, and although the country itself does not require any sort of testing as a requirement for entry, we are flying with Qatar Airways and they require a negative Covid PCR test certificate that has been done within 96 hours of boarding the plane.

So we made appointments to have the tests done at the nearby Muhumbili University Hospital. You book the day, but not the time. They said they take samples between 8am and 5pm, and we wanted to show up right at 8am.

We were also told that we had to pay the 230,000 shilling ($125 CAD, $100 USD) fee in cash, so first we made a stop at an ATM and took out sufficient cash.

We had checked it out the day before, so we knew exactly where to go. And we arrived there at exactly 8:00am.

Yup, this is the place!

There were a couple of other people waiting too. They all had masks on, but there is no mask rule, so some staff did, and some staff didn't. Personal choice, I guess. We thought it was all a bit odd. Then somebody came in and sat right beside us, despite other seating being available. Not that we are paranoid, but we moved. I honestly thought that being in a hospital, people might be more aware.

An older couple were also waiting, but they had masks, and even gloves on.

They asked if we had paid, and we had not. So they sent us to an NMB bank agent where we gave the control number that was issued to us when we made the booking. We paid the cash, and a receipt was printed out that automatically had our names on them. Everything is linked with your passport number as well. I was actually pretty impressed. As soon as it was paid, I immediately received an email and a text message saying that it had been paid.

Then, back to the testing place where we filled out a form manually with the same info that had been on the online booking. They give you a sample container, and label it with your name and passport number. Then you go into another room where a guy administers the test.

It's pretty simple, and not nearly as uncomfortable as I had read about. First, they stick a swab in your mouth, and briefly let it touch the back of your tongue. They break it off and put it in your previously labeled sample container. Then they stick another swab up your nose, pretty much until it can't go any further! Then they break it off, and put it in the sample container as well.

And that's it, we were done. We were out of there by 8:35am.

So now we wait.

Part of the information you gave listed your flight date, and we had told them we were flying on the 14th. We also noticed on the forms that the couple ahead of us were also flying on the 14th. So we're pretty confident that we will get the results in time for our flight. We're also pretty confident they will come back negative, but there's always this lingering doubt in the back of your mind so we will feel a lot better when we actually see the negative certificate! I'm guessing it will show up by Sunday morning, but I read one report of a guy who didn't get his until he was on the way to the airport. Test results are available electronically to airport staff because they are linked to your passport, so there is no need to print them off.

We did have to get a Passenger Consent Form printed for the airline, so we got that done on the way back home.

I haven't booked our accommodation in Tirana yet because I don't want to lose anything in case the tests come back positive. There is quite a bit of availability, so it will have to be a last minute thing.

Mongolian Beef Curry.

We went back to the Indian restaurant near us for dinner. Really tasty food, I had a chicken and rice dish, and Ruth had the Mongolian Beef Curry that was really good. Maybe we will go back again today and I will order it!

What else. Oh, we watched that movie Nomadland. It's winning all kind of awards, but I'm afraid we weren't impressed. I actually found it quite depressing, and didn't find it entertaining at all.

For those of you who aren't aware, it's about a woman who lives in her van. Now, there are all kinds of people who live in vans and motorhomes and trailers and other sorts of RV's, and most of them do so by choice. And most of them love it, for various reasons. This movie didn't showcase those reasons at all, in fact it seemed to focus on the negative side of it. As I say, I didn't enjoy it at all and would have been happier if I hadn't watched it.

And finally, we received a full refund for our KLM flights that we had booked last December, and then changed in February. Nice to have that out of the way.

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