Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Long and Winding Road...

Praise the Lord we arrived, with out wits but not our luggage, YET!. As I write this blog it is between 9:45 Indian time on Wednesday-we have now been IN India for 18 hours. I hope that our luggage is currently somewhere near the skies of Israel/Saudi Arabia. What a trip here!

We began Monday morning in the USA -- please understand that magically as a person flies to India time speeds up and you begin to loose the next day. Okay, so we began at 6am in our modest house in Lapel, Indiana. Rainy, stormy, windy. Having not looked at weather.com before leaving we were unaware of the hurricane size storm that was swamping Virginia, New York and even my home state of Wisconsin all at one time. Our flight left on time (10:00am) from Indianapolis to D.C.

As soon as we landed in D.C. we began planning our priority of Lunch. We found a wonderful “ethnic” restaurant in Concourse A at Dulles Airport. Is it called “Dosi”. If you are ever at Dulles Airport for more than a 2 hour layover, I would recommend this place. A little expensive – however – everything (yes even the bread) is cooked fresh and fired (prepared) after the order is issued. Very good food. We were satisfied….and so began the end of our enjoyable trip to India.

Our next connection flight to New York was suppose to board around 1:30pm. So we arrived around 1:15 to gate A4. We organized our carry-on to have easy access to books, etc. and eagerly awaited our United flight. Five minutes before our boarding the FSA (I think that is the agency in the USA) issued a “non-entry” command for LaGuardia and JFK airports due to 30-60 mph wind gusts. So our plane was delayed for 1 hour. Then one hour became 1:30minutes. Then 2 hours. Our “Jet Airways” (and Indian Carrier) flight from NY-Brussels-Chennai was to leave at 6:10pm in New York. For international flights you must make contact with the gate at least one hour before take off, when they shut down the gate.

So I was busy calling Jet Airways and punching strange buttons on the automatic voicemail system in order to talk to an Indian directly. I finally got through as the 3rd (yes 3rd) employee at Dulles opened a “Do Not Open” door near the same gate… now everyone was laughing of the failure of the employees to even know what is going on at the airport. Needless to say I had to then hang up and call from ¼ mile down the concourse. Having gotten through finally I then learned 4 minutes later I needed to sprint back to Kathryn to get her passport so that we could tell New York that we were still going to make it.. barely. Yes, I was that guy running down the concourse that you always see at least once while you are flying… the guy I use to make fun of!

We finally boarded at 4:15 and were on the runway at 4:30 in enough time to then be told that we were going to be delayed 90 minutes on the tarmac. So I had to call our agency (fellowship.com). Our agents boss, Dennison, was able to help us over the following hours. Okay, so we are on the tarmac for 1 hour (it is now around 5:45) when we learn that we will be delayed until 8:40pm for our departure… so it was decided to let us off the plane. 30 minutes later the announcement came over the PA that our flight was cancelled. 2 dozen of us who were going to miss our international flights then proceed to concourse C, near gate 20 to wait in line for an hour to get “endorsed” flights from United with another carrier (so we will not be charged twice for one international trip). It was in line that we met a business man from India (now living in Virginia) that was flying back home to Hyderabad (capital of the state where the Rees hospital is located). His name was “Anand”. Kathryn talked to a southern belle who was the daughter of a Jewish Rabbi, and she was going to school in Israel.

So we had two new friends to help the hour go by. It was during that time that our fearless agent (Dennison) was overriding our current itinerary with a new one through Qatar (a United Arab Emirate) state about 500 miles south of Kuwait (you can Google it). By the time we got to the counter… it was all worked out and they took 2 minutes to endorse our new flights and we were off to concourse B to enjoy a Fuddruckers meal of a fish sandwich and chicken fingers.

Halfway through our meal we heard that we were being called to board our Qatar Airways flight 50 minutes before take off? I ate my fish as fast as I could… and Kathryn backed up our chicken fingers. We later guessed that Qatar Airways gets everyone in the plane so they can get the drinks and entertainment (each seat has a screen with access to movies, shows, news, games, etc.). Basically they are tossing free bread to the mob so that passengers have a great experience.


Rain picked up and we found ourselves sitting on the back rear right of the plane. Behind the HUGE engines (and I mean a Boeing 777 with just 2 engines… they were HUGE) and seated over the luggage compartment. So Kathryn watched for our luggage. A special vehicle carrying 7 pieces of luggage (our two pieces, and 5 other pieces from two families who were also scheduled with our same itinerary). The baggage guy proceeded to look at the numbers, his lists, take them off the vehicle, then on, then off and finally back on (rejecting them) and then Kathryn and I began to talk to 3 flight attendants (in order of responsibility) to see if that can make a call to the baggage men and explain why these pieces are separate! “No no sir, it will be on, it will be in transit” was the response. Basically, just get in your seat you do not understand international travel or our airline. FRUSTRATING!!!!!

Our plane then proceeded to move in the opposite direction of our luggage. We didn’t know if we should pray, cry or turn red in anger… we chose to do all three! It took about 3 hours to cool off and realize that when you fly you really have NO CONTROL over anything, only the remote in your hand of what you watch and the volume. And you can go the bathroom, when the light tell you it is okay. Other than this… you are a ‘guest’. Qatar’s service was GREAT. Best I have had since Singapore Airlines in 1998 on my first trip to India. We even had an ice cream service of food. (I know, rough life huh?). So I proceeded to attempt to stay up all 12 hours for the flight (to switch my internal clock), while Kathryn slept for 6 hours in the two empty seats in our row.

I was able to start watching three movies but did not stay awake to see any endings… in and out all flight. We arrived at Doha international terminal for our connecting flight to only realize that it is a special concourse for foreigners and not the main airport. So they can tell us information, but have now way to actually do anything. Another frustrating point as we were trying to get a commitment for the airline to send our luggage on the next day’s flight to Doha and then to Chennai. It is basically a huge “duty free”(non-taxed) mall with 12 flight gates built around the shopping center. Very impressive with their marketing. Really an inventive idea to get more money while people wait.

Frustrated again we boarded our Chennai flight and I ate a quick meal after take off and slept for 3.5 hours till landing. Obviously we knew our luggage was still in D.C. but we were glad that a customs agent met us as we walked to the custom gates and said that they have received several answers to our complaints and we needed to register a formal loss of luggage form and then it could be “telexed” to DC and Doha. So we spend 90 minutes figuring all of this information out.. and Usha Rees (Kathryn’s mother) and her cousin, Suresh waited for us outside. (If I write ‘Suresh Attah’ please understand that it only means = Suresh brother, or brother Suresh – it is a somewhat formal name for family members.)


5:45am Indian time (2 hours from our landing) we finally were home explaining the previous several paragraphs to an eager team of parents, brother, cousins, and Santhosh (whom you will come to know and laugh about in the days to come). We have been shopping, seeing friends, napping and eating today. Relaxing as we wait for our luggage to arrive in 5 hours (it is now 10:30pm as I finish this post).

There are elections tomorrow in our district where the hospital is located, and here in Chennai there will be a formal “Bunt” (curfew, closing) basically a calculated day of civil unrest and disobedience in relation to regional and national elections. We are hoping to pick up the luggage and cross the state line before 6am tomorrow morning so that we don’t risk getting caught in a 500-5,000 person mob.

So, we are safe, happy, glad to meet our new sort-of niece (Suresh Attah’s daughter) ‘Naynanapryia”. And glad to finally hug Santhosh, our new younger kinda brother in the Rees family… as it goes. Home cooked Indian food by Suresh’s mother-n-law and a bed to stretch out in after 34 hours of ‘travel’.

No matter what, it is a better alternative than catching a maritime vessel and spending 4 weeks in transit to India! More to come when we can write. We are headed to the Hospital in Andhra Pradesh tomorrow. The David & Lois Rees Hospital which constitutes about 75% of the work of BSSI (Benevolent Social Services of India).

Thank you all for reading this LONG post and caring enough to include our adventures in your life today.

JOSH

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