We attempted to upgrade 24 hours prior to First Class since you get 3 complimentary bags each and it was only $110 dollars to do so. Because our flights were mixed airlines (American and US Airways) and they are in the midst of a lovely merger, the long and short of it is after much hold time both airlines reported that neither of them were authorized to upgrade us to First Class.
Plan B - I asked both airlines if they have some sort of humanitarian waiver since all of the checked bags were to help an orphanage. The outcome of those conversations was basically that the airport check in agents were the ones with authority on that and they couldn't guarantee anything for us. Hence our 4:45 am airport arrival. We knew there would be some finagling to get the bags on at a decent price. I would have to dig deep and pull out my Central American Missionary Kid bargaining skills that I hadn't used since my trip to Peru in 2010.
On our way to the airport I was perusing the options for a Plan C and remembered seeing that active military got some comp bags on American. Well, we weren't technically "active duty" anymore, but Mike is "active reserve," so we thought we'd just throw that out there. We arrived and placed our ID's on the counter. I knew she was missing something on the website but could tell it was useless to argue, and it was a slight relief to me b/c despite the agent's recommendation on the phone and a few other opinions that it would be ok to use our ID's to get that allowance since he was active reserve, it still felt slightly dishonest to me. And as it turns out, it gave God a chance to show up.
So on to Plan D. I explained that all of the bags were for an orphanage and asked about a fee waiver for humanitarian aid. She said she didn't know and proceeded to type on her keyboard. Then she said that she would give us the first two bags free. Which after the fact, apparently is the new policy, but it is nowhere on the website. So that was a surprise, but what about the other four check ins? She typed away again and after a while said the computer was giving us a total of $700 for the other three check ins!! Excuse me?!?! We all kind of choked, event the agent. She called someone and talked a long time on the phone getting confirmation about that price. She got off and in a relieved tone said it would only be $380 for the other four. She might have been relieved, but we were not! Mike got on the phone and began to call my dad to circle around b/c we were going to have to leave two of the items. I pushed again and asked if she could waive the fees for humanitarian aid, particularly since two of the items would have been checked for free if we had been traveling with an infant. "Can't you just pretend I have a baby with me?" I asked. She said she wasn't authorized but thankfully got her supervisor. The supervisor came over, I explained what we were doing, asked about the humanitarian waiver and reminded her that they would ship the carrier and stroller free if we had a baby. In a very business-like manor, she approved it and told the lady just to charge us for the second bags, which were 40 bucks each.
We waltzed through security having paid only $80 for six check ins!! This was less than we were expecting to pay even if they waived the car seat and stroller!!! An hour into our trip and we had already seen God do something pretty amazing!!
We arrived in Haiti about 6.5 hours later. I was quite impressed with the airport. You can always judge the quality of an aiport by the cleanliness of the bathrooms, and they had a full time bathroom attendant. So that was a surprise and customs and baggage collection went down surprisingly orderly and with no hassle. When we got into our friends' car, another miracle had just taken place. They had fit all of those bags into their small SUV, along with five passengers.
As we drove an hour and a half to the town we would be staying in, getting to know the missionary friends and taking it all in I was surprised by how similar it was to, well, every other country south of the border. I sometimes forget how odd the United States is in comparison to the rest of the world. We really do live in a bubble in America. The driving was the typical "every man for himself" gig with lots of honking to let people know you are coming. When the car slows down you are bombarded with people trying to sell you stuff through the window, mostly food. The scenery was beautiful, ocean on one side, mountains on the other, dotted with trash here and there. The country is very colorful, with most stores and vehicles brightly painted and random names written on them. People don't drive with their a/c on in the car (if they have it that is) b/c gas is 8 bucks a gallon so we quickly became accustomed to the smells and heat of Haiti. Think humidity coupled with lots of smoke, diesel, random stinky smells -standard south of the US border smells. Of course with all the similarities at first glance, as you get to know a country, their culture and values a little better, you begin to see their uniqueness. One of those things that stuck out to us right away is the respect the Haitian culture has for elders. They are very respectful and actually listen to them when an older person asks or tells them to do something. I found that really refreshing. Sometimes I think because of America's obsession with staying young looking, it carries over into a lack of respect for people that are old and the wisdom that comes with it. Another blog for another time. :-P
We arrived at our resort (think 2.5 star hotel in the US with amazing scenery and food) sweaty and exhausted. Before checking in, we tried to call our Haitian World Vision contact. His phone went straight to voicemail. That would happen every time we tried to call for the next 36 hours. We did a little snorkeling and swimming and waited about an hour for our dinner to be served. If we hadn't been so tired, it would have been quite relaxing and entertaining b/c we were serenaded by a local band playing Haitian style music. I'm going to upload a video of the band. I never would have expected a banjo to be typical instrument used in Haitian music. They also use accordian (which wasn't as suprising), electric guitar played like a bass, some fun percussion instruments and shakers. I really enjoyed the joyfulness of their music. We scarfed our food and passed out on our hard beds. And that was day 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment