painting the town SLEEP

Dear Friends,
Well, this is unexpected. I am able to write a last, last blog entry before I leave the United States.

I am ensconced in a less luxurious hotel room than last night as this one is not a suite. The suite was, well, sweet. However this room still has a wonderful bed and a soft, oh so soft, comforter that is indeed very comforting.

The last two days have been quite interesting. Due to Hurricane Irene there were glitches with the computer system at the United Airlines counter in Louisville. I was charged domestic luggage rates for nine excess bags to Juba, plus my two free ones. I will say that the people in Louisville were helpful and kind. And I am very grateful to my friend who stayed with me until almost boarding time and went and got me another suitcase when the $60. for 20 pounds overweight shot up to $400. on the computer and it was clearly cheaper to pay $100. for another bag. (These numbers will have some repeat action later in this account.)

I got to Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. in fairly fine shape and got to the hotel without incident as well, extremely grateful to have been able to leave my 11 checked in bags at the airport and to have only my two carryons in hand with me.

This morning I got up and had sufficient time to get ready and ate a very good complimentary breakfast on the hotel. I was extremely tired and knew that what I really wanted to do was just crawl back in to bed for a few hours....little did I know.....

I got to the airport three hours early and went to the Ethiopian Airline counter. I was told almost immediately that Louisville had checked my bags through only to D.C. and not to Juba, even though Louisville had told them me that the bags were checked through to Juba. Okay, the long and the short of it is that due to the computer glitch in Louisville, which was due to the hurricane (does this sound a little bit like the story The House That Jack Built?) I was charged domestic charges on the luggage which should not have been charged at all and I was NOT charged the international charges that I WAS supposed to pay. International charges are $200. a piece (at least to and from the United States), whereas domestic is $100. So my charges needed to be doubled and I need the baggage receipt to show that the bags were checked clean through to Juba. I couldn't be issued a boarding pass until this was done, a key piece to note in this saga.

Apparently in Louisville on Sunday the 28th things were happening like....my flight from Louisville to D.C. was fine and on time but the next leg of the flight (which I was not supposed to be on and in fact was not on) had been cancelled because of Hurricane Irene. The computer was not allowing people to even go to D.C. who were checked through to the next destination, it may have been New York.

Okay. So I was directed to United to take care of the problem as it was United where the problem originated. I went to the United desk. I was asked what time my flight was leaving (later I understood why I was asked that) and directed to the Additional Services desk. That is when the nightmare began.

Tonight in the hotel I am switching the projector and the computer from my backpack to my rolling bag. For two hours I stood in line at the Additional Services desk with 25 pounds perched upon my aching back. Never a good idea.

I took my place at the end of a line of people who were waiting to rebook their flights due to cancellations to due Hurricane Irene. I noticed many of the folks were going to Boston and there had been no additional flights scheduled and there was a lot of unhappiness to go around.

After today I consider myself a seasoned traveler. So I quickly noted that I really should leave the area where I was standing by oh say 10:30 for an international flight at 11:45....a lady (a normal person, not an employee) had let me know soon after my arrival that my problem was hurricane related due to the computer systems. She said a lot of people were just paying the extra charges and then dealing with reimbursements later. My bet was that a lot of people were not flying to Juba and then to Malakal where there has been no power and no internet for three days. It is not easy to use Skype without internet. So I made the fateful decision to stick things out and take care of it stateside.

The long and the short of it is that no one came through the group asking if anyone was there for any reason besides rebooking. There was only one employee dealing with this massive group of people, and sometimes there was no employee at all. I understood that they had everyone available on the front lines, but sometimes there are extraordinary situations that call for extra-
ordinary responses.

I finally decided to start asking questions. I untied the ribbon from the post and started making noise. I was not there to rebook and I had a flight to catch. Maybe there were other people who had immediate needs too. This is not to say that one person is more important than the others (except maybe the Pope or the President of the United States) but instead that sometimes one person's matter is more urgent and needs to be repriortized.

Not one single employee listened to me at this point or made any kind of move to help me or to see if other people were in the same circumstance as myself. Eventually someone did make a feeble attempt but I was still ignored. At one point I advocated for another woman, left my rolling bag with the man from China who I had struck up a conversation with being that I have lived in China and could speak somewhat knowledgeably about his home country, took this woman by the hand (so to speak) and found someone several counters away who would listen to her. I should have stayed and gotten help next, but no I was foolish enough to think that the line was going to start moving more quickly when a second employee finally showed up at 10:30.

At 11:00 I finally got my turn. That is why I am at a hotel here in D.C. tonight. Fortunately my case got turned over to someone who actually knew what to do with me and who was kind and very helpful. He thought I had a boarding pass (oh no, no, no, no, no) and was hustling me down to the gate when I said "I don't even have a boarding pass." Ah, the fateful words....well, the good news was that the double charge was made on my credit card and tomorrow morning the luggage will be good to go and should (I do repeat should) meet me in Juba on Wednesday morning. He took me to the Ethiopian Airline counter where they were stunned to know that I had been there for three, I repeat three, hours. "They" sent me to the reticketing counter in the basement and the angel God had sent to me accompanied me. He made sure that they had me on the same flight for tomorrow, I got my printed information proving the same, and then we went back upstairs where he proceeded to find me a hotel voucher from somewhere. He also provided me with a food voucher.

I took the shuttle to the hotel, went and got two Diet Cokes, crawled into bed and slept all afternoon. Remember the statement at the beginning about wanting to sleep for hours.....?

So I'm now typing my blog, watching CNN, more rested and have another wake up call for 6:00 a.m., planning to again get to the airport at 8:45, three, I repeat three, hours early. Apparently all I have to do this time is to check-in. Right, I'm supposed to believe that????? :)

I do hope and pray that everyone in South Sudan got my email letting them know I will be a day late. I hate to worry people. The helpful man at the airport did tell me that the airline will know in Juba that I will be coming in on Wednesday and not Tuesday and so will hopefully be able to tell my folks in Juba that. Sometimes one just has to leave it in God's hands.....

Now, on to other things....I have been reflecting in between all this drama and trauma, about what the word ancient means to me. Like the Ancient of Days. Like the Ancient Ones from the movie the Whale Rider. Like the ancient ruins in Rome and in Whitby, England. Like at St. Patrick's church in Northern Ireland.

Ancient and also stormy, windy nights. These two things seem to hold something in common for me. I can sense eternity in them. I believe that it may be that the connection with the Communion of Saints, past, present and future, becomes more clear, more real, more authentic, genuine and present to me with the timelessness of ancient and with the power of stormy, windy night. Still mulling on it....
Blessings,
Debbie