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We finished up most of the
packing last night and I went to bed around 11pm. There were a few things that we couldn’t
find. It’s the rainy season in Liberia and I wanted a rain
jacket that looked nice enough to wear to the meetings that I have
planned. Apparently stores only
stock these during the winter.
Another thing I wanted was handkerchiefs but those are sold at
Christmastime. Oh well. Several people sent last minute items for
people in Liberia
and the airlines have changed the rules.
Last year we could have 2 bags @ 70 lbs. each but this year it’s 50 lbs. each.
I went by Chuck’s (Clark Iron & Metal) to use his scales to
weigh the bags with the stuff from others.
It weighted a little over 60 lbs.
That leaves almost 40 lbs for me.
I don’t have much to carry so it is looking okay.
Anyway, almost everything was
packed by last night so this morning was pretty calm. I woke at 5am and completed a few last
minute business items. Carl Hadley,
Rob Patterson, my mother and my brother, Fred, all called to check in. Daniel Lolubah
from the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary called to ask about dates
that I would be available to meet with an attorney to handle the
incorporation of Service To Servants in Liberia. He called back a little later to say that
we could meet on Friday or Saturday of this week.
Gayla, Rebekah &
Elizabeth have all been working late the last week on the set for the play
“Forever Patsy Cline” at the Cannon
County Art
Center. Since we don’t have to leave for the
airport until 10:30am I have been instructed to “keep quiet” until they
wake up on their own. For Gayla this
is a little after 8am with Rebekah and then Elizabeth
following a little later.
I begin to put bags into the
truck and start packing the backpack and computer bag. Gayla packs 4 small roast beef sandwiches
and 4 plums for me to take. That
should get me at least part of the way to Brussels. (Remind me to tell you at
another time about the flight to Toronto
our family took and the bag of sausages I opened on the plane.)
Now I should tell you that I
believe in demons. The Bible talks
about them and every time I’ve traveled to Liberia this belief has been
reinforced. Satan does everything
possible to ruin your spirit from the very beginning and he’s got something
going with the airlines.
After we were fully loaded,
and had said goodbye to the girls (I will not see Rebekah again until
Thanksgiving), Gayla and I left to meet Luke at Clark Iron to re-weigh the
bags after my clothes had gone in.
It turns out that I had improperly positioned the bags on the scales
yesterday and not gotten eh proper amount of weight. Now we’re at 116 lbs. combined. That is not good as it costs extra for an
overweight bag. Oh well. Luke goes with us to the airport and I am
(later to be) very grateful for his presence.
We arrive before noon and I
tell Gayla goodbye while Luke goes into help me with the luggage. When I walk up to the United counter and
hand the lady my ticket she says, “This flight is delayed and you will not
make your connection to Brussels”. “Satan be
banished,” I think to myself. But
apparently my prayer life and fasting were not up to snuff. The lady began searching for another
flight to Dulles. She found one on
American but then couldn’t figure out how to get the ticket into the system
correctly. She called their help
desk and waited 30 minutes on hold.
Finally she called someone in the back to come help and this women fixed it in 2 minutes. When they handed me my new ticket it was
for a departure time about 30 minutes from now. I asked them to call down to the American
counter and ask them to expedite it for me but they said “Don’t worry, just
run.” When I got to American they
wouldn’t take me because the departure time was too close. No amount of talking would change their
mind. (did
I mention that if I didn’t make my connection in Brussels
I had to wait another 3 days before they flew to Monrovia again?) Luke, who is lugging the 116 lbs. of
luggage for me, and I run back to United.
The original lady hands me off to another guy. He looks at the computer and says, “I
don’t guess going another day is an option?” I explain the 3 day thing to him and said
“No”. He looks some more, talks on the
phone and then runs back to get my tickets.
I’m almost happy again but I can still hear those demons chuckling
in the background. This time the
flight is on Delta and goes to Chicago and
then Brussels with a 2 hour window in Brussels before the Monrovia flight. I look at the ticket and it departs in 20
MINUTES! Luke and I run the few
yards to the Delta ticket counter but they will not even consider letting
me on (it seems their planes are actually on time). Luke and I trudge back to the United
counter again and I explain that this has happened twice in a row. The same guy stops everything else he’s
doing and gets back on the phone. He
talks, talks and talks some more.
Finally he says that the earliest he can get me to Monrovia is Friday morning at 9:40. (I’m
supposed to be there at 5:00pm Wednesday.)
He mentions that I can leave later now if I want but I explain that
I want to go just as far as possible to take as much of the risk out of
this flight as possible and that I want to start right now. So he books everything and I hug Luke
goodbye and let he and Gayla go…finally.
My new
schedule is:
Today – Nashville to Washington
DC
Tonight –
Washington DC
to London, England
Tomorrow
– Arrive in London
and sit there all day and night
Thursday
– Sit in London all day and depart for Lagos, Nigeria
at 10pm
Friday –
Arrive in Lagos at 5:00am and depart 7:00am
and arrive Monrovia
at 9:40am
[Oh, I just found a slip in
my ticket information that says, “The U.S. Secretary of Transportation has
determined that Murtala
Muhammed
Airport, Lagos, Nigeria,
does not maintain and carry out effective airport security measures.”]
I bet even you can hear the
demons now.
Finally the United flight
departed from Nashville
for Washington Dulles. The flight
(only 1.5 hours in the air but 1.5 days of extra time for me) was
uneventful other than a very shrill voiced lady with two squalling kids
that sat just behind me. The flight
to London
leaves at about 9:54pm central tonight.
It will take about 6.5 hours to get there. So the next time you hear from me I will,
hopefully, be in London
on my short vacation.
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