Just so no one has to suffer through a suspenseful, anxiety-provoking chronicle of the day, be reassured that Mary and I are safely ensconced in a family-run hotel surrounded by a high steel fence with spiky posts spaced every three feet and a well-manned gate at the entrance, in Guatemala City. We each have a private room with bath, complete with toilet paper and a bottle of water. We each have a well-stocked fridge, with juice, soda and beer that we likely will leave for the next guests.
That said, the day did not go as planned. To explain some of the anxiety, I must describe some of the packing activities on Friday afternoon. Although I had done most of my packing ahead, I had left the medications till the end, mainly because I wasn't sure how to manage them. Taking medications into Guatemala is legal as long as they are not expired, but I suspect there is a preferred method involving customs and fees and long delays. My goal was to bring in the 56 pounds of antibiotics, antihypertensives, antiparasitics, vitamins, creams, drops, ointments, pain, cold and cough medicines and a few more random remedies without having to explain their presence. I do have a letter from Luis inviting me to come to do volunteer medicine and a letter from MAP International listing the medications and stating they are a gift and not for resale, but in the end, if I were asked to open my suitcases, someone might question the number of bottles or feel a need to levy a tax.
In the spirit of bringing in the medications without a lot of fuss, Randy (my husband) and I spent a lot of time wrapping them up in shrink wrap bags in an effort to reduce the noise made by the rattling of dozens of bottles of pills. When they were all packed and I lifted up the suitcase to weigh it, (which is how I know there are 56 pounds of medications,) the bag sounded like it contained an entire mariachi band. We ended up splitting the medications into two bags and wrapping everything in towels and my clothes. In the end, to jump to the conclusion of this part of the story, the customs agents waved us through without a glance - I could have just thrown the bottles in one by one.
Mary and I went to fairly great lengths to mesh our flight schedules so we could meet up in Charlotte and fly to Miami and then on to Guatemala City together. Luckily, Mary's flights came off without a hitch and she ended up, as planned, in Miami at around 1:30 pm, with a long layover until our 6:50 flight to Guatemala. My flight to Charlotte was an hour late due to "crew fatigue" and I was therefore booked on a later flight out of Charlotte. It turns out I could have made the original flight; I arrived in time to see the last few stragglers board, but my bags were on the later one so my fate was sealed. The later flight began to board around 1:00 pm, and suddenly, groups 1 and 2 began filing off the plane. The pilot's seat belt was broken, AND there was no replacement seat belt in the whole airport. We waited until 3:30 for another plane to arrive with a new seatbelt and took off around 4:30. The pilot made good time and we were about to land in Miami with 20 minutes to spare when, at 500 feet from the runway, the plane suddenly swooped back up into the air and made a big turn before leveling off. Turns out there was another plane on the runway and the control tower gave a last minute shout to pull up. When we finally landed, I made a mad dash to the gate where Mary was waiting. She had asked the gate agent to pull her bags off the plane in case I didn't make it, but, in the end, we both got on WITH our bags.
That's all for today. I'm off to bed. I'll try to post a couple of photos before I sleep. One is of the mountain of reading glasses people donated. Mary will have the pleasure of giving these out to adults who need them. No one has glasses in the villages and they will make such an amazing difference for those who can no longer see to do fine work. The other is of a second mountain - medications.
That said, the day did not go as planned. To explain some of the anxiety, I must describe some of the packing activities on Friday afternoon. Although I had done most of my packing ahead, I had left the medications till the end, mainly because I wasn't sure how to manage them. Taking medications into Guatemala is legal as long as they are not expired, but I suspect there is a preferred method involving customs and fees and long delays. My goal was to bring in the 56 pounds of antibiotics, antihypertensives, antiparasitics, vitamins, creams, drops, ointments, pain, cold and cough medicines and a few more random remedies without having to explain their presence. I do have a letter from Luis inviting me to come to do volunteer medicine and a letter from MAP International listing the medications and stating they are a gift and not for resale, but in the end, if I were asked to open my suitcases, someone might question the number of bottles or feel a need to levy a tax.
In the spirit of bringing in the medications without a lot of fuss, Randy (my husband) and I spent a lot of time wrapping them up in shrink wrap bags in an effort to reduce the noise made by the rattling of dozens of bottles of pills. When they were all packed and I lifted up the suitcase to weigh it, (which is how I know there are 56 pounds of medications,) the bag sounded like it contained an entire mariachi band. We ended up splitting the medications into two bags and wrapping everything in towels and my clothes. In the end, to jump to the conclusion of this part of the story, the customs agents waved us through without a glance - I could have just thrown the bottles in one by one.
Mary and I went to fairly great lengths to mesh our flight schedules so we could meet up in Charlotte and fly to Miami and then on to Guatemala City together. Luckily, Mary's flights came off without a hitch and she ended up, as planned, in Miami at around 1:30 pm, with a long layover until our 6:50 flight to Guatemala. My flight to Charlotte was an hour late due to "crew fatigue" and I was therefore booked on a later flight out of Charlotte. It turns out I could have made the original flight; I arrived in time to see the last few stragglers board, but my bags were on the later one so my fate was sealed. The later flight began to board around 1:00 pm, and suddenly, groups 1 and 2 began filing off the plane. The pilot's seat belt was broken, AND there was no replacement seat belt in the whole airport. We waited until 3:30 for another plane to arrive with a new seatbelt and took off around 4:30. The pilot made good time and we were about to land in Miami with 20 minutes to spare when, at 500 feet from the runway, the plane suddenly swooped back up into the air and made a big turn before leveling off. Turns out there was another plane on the runway and the control tower gave a last minute shout to pull up. When we finally landed, I made a mad dash to the gate where Mary was waiting. She had asked the gate agent to pull her bags off the plane in case I didn't make it, but, in the end, we both got on WITH our bags.
That's all for today. I'm off to bed. I'll try to post a couple of photos before I sleep. One is of the mountain of reading glasses people donated. Mary will have the pleasure of giving these out to adults who need them. No one has glasses in the villages and they will make such an amazing difference for those who can no longer see to do fine work. The other is of a second mountain - medications.
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