I'm on my way to Haiti, and was excited about the possibilities to get there in one day. The new American Airlines flight from Miami to Cap-Haitien, that started 1st Oct, means - in theory - that we can leave our house in Indiana, head to the airport, fly to Miami, hop, skip and jump (i.e. run) from one gate to another to catch a flight to Cap-Haitien, be picked up in Cap and driven to the OMS compound, door-to-door in about 8 hours. Storly did it a month ago. Sounds amazing!
But the 'one-day travel' thing? Not happening for me.
Yesterday, (Saturday), Storly drove me to Indianapolis airport (with the girls snuggled under blankets in the back seats because it was below freezing at 4 a.m.). After checking in and going through security, I met up with fellow OMS missionary Bill Evans, who was traveling with a team of 11 down to Miami, then Port-au-Prince, to work on the Homes for Haiti project (building homes for very poor families affected by the earthquake). We were expecting the announcement at the gate to say it's time to start boarding, but no. "The First Officer (deputy pilot) is unable to make the flight" ...you'll have to wait 5 hours for flight to Miami. Urgh! There's no way we would make our connections, me to the once-a-day flight to Cap; the other team to Port-au-Prince. So we got on the phone, re-booking flights, letting various people we were meeting up with in Miami, and various people meeting us at various destinations in Haiti, know the changes. And then, we enjoyed conversations over breakfast, and began a long wait.
We eventually made it to Miami, spent about 3 hours at various counters getting checked in for Sunday's flights, getting hotel rooms booked and meal vouchers assigned (at AA's expense as the delay was their fault), finding bags that the other team wanted to reclaim (I didn't want to pick my bag up, just left it for today's flight). Bill shared his bag of cherry licorice laces, and Vern and others got out bags of candy when I started searching for a snack machine selling chocolate. (Bill Evans is the man to travel with - he's cool as a cucumber, organizing and sorting out all the details, and he has supplies of sugary stuff when needed).
About 5 p.m., I left the team still waiting for their bags, and went ahead to the hotel for the night.
Went back to the airport this morning, straight through security, got to the gate for the flight to Cap, was happily enjoying people-watching: a real mélange of Haitians and non-Haitians, some of the non-Haitians obviously on their first trip in, some on their Nth trip. And the sounds of English-Creole-French all mixed in.
[Meanwhile, back home, Storly had an eventful night, with the police knocking on the door in the early hours, letting him know some people had thrown eggs on various cars in the neighborhood, including ours; and then he and the girls had taken longer than expected to get to church this morning, where Storly was one of three missionaries giving a mini-sermon in both services, because of cleaning up the egg-mess on the car, and the various challenges of two girls deciding what to wear to church.]
And then the announcement. Again, expecting the "We're starting boarding". But, nope. This time, "the plane can't land in Cap-Haitien...bad weather...flight cancelled..." Urgh, again.
As I posted this info on Facebook, Steve Gross (Gross family are friends from Columbus, now OMS missionaries in Cap) and I chatted back and forth about the weather conditions there in Cap, and the message from Brett (OMS Haiti field director and know-er of all things) was that the low cloud ceiling makes it risky to land with the radar situation at the Cap-Haitien airport. Having bumped through clouds in tiny airplanes on flights from Port-au-Prince to Cap many times when I was commuting to Port for work, I have absolutely no desire to do that again.
Well, to spare you the details, I'm booked on tomorrow's flight (others were booked on Tuesday's...).
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| Still smiling... |
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| A guy at the airport commented that my suitcase - hard case, bright yellow - has seen a few miles. I didn't realize it was that obvious, but it definitely has. Bought it in San Francisco about 15 years ago. It has traveled all over the globe with me since then. And I can always spot it a mile off in those kinds of places where someone may well run off with your suitcase. |
And back to the hotel for another night. I've already missed traveling in with my team, the guys from Findlay E-Free church. I've missed going to church with them this morning. And now, I'm going to miss the first day of our outreach. This is not going to plan.
But, sometimes, that's part of the joys of international travel. Of life, actually.
So, I am going to enjoy some downtime - much-needed, really. Some sleep. Some just-being. Some TV. And nowhere else to be for the rest of the day. Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you happen to be!
