As if we hadn't had enough adventure already! We arrived at the airport in Guatemala City by 5:10 AM, only to find that our flight with American Airlines was delayed by 2 hours. So, after checking our luggage, we had breakfast at McDonalds (talk about reverse culture shock!) and waited...and waited...and waited. The airport had no air conditioning. With temperatures in the high 20's, it was sweltering inside.
We finally took off & had a great flight to Dallas Fort-Worth.
But, when we landed in Dallas Fort-Worth, we found out that plans had changed dramatically. As most of you know, American Airlines has had numerous planes grounded these past few days; our flight to Calgary was canceled. With barely a pause, American Airlines had us on a bus to a hotel in Arlington, Texas, with vouchers for hotel rooms and meals. Wow! We were well taken care of. We had great rooms at the La Quinta hotel and were able to have big meals at Denny's and Binigans (a fairly nice restaurant).
Most of the team was in bed by 11 PM, and, despite having no sleep wear, most slept through the night. But, a bunch were awoken at 3 in the morning by a horrible storm. Thunder, lightning and high winds. A tornado watch was out for the entire area! It was quite the show!
This morning, we had a continental breakfast in our hotel, dressed in the same clothes we had been wearing for the past 24 hours, and then headed out for the airport at 8:30 for a 10:55 flight. Another bus ride and we were met by an American Airlines rep who set up our group to be checked through in good time. Check through was slow, but we made it in time to the terminal. But, as we sat there, the flight was pushed off to 11:15, then to 11:30 & then to 11:45. Funny part was, the whole time we sat there, we noticed that there was no plane waiting to receive us. At about 11:15, an announcement let us know that our gate had been changed to an entire different terminal in the airport! We and about a 100 other passengers had to RUN through the airport to get to the new terminal. We arrived breathless, sweaty and ready to head for home.
Boarding went smoothly. We pulled out onto the tarmac and the pilot announced that not all of the luggage was loaded as they needed to load extra fuel in case the plane couldn't land in Calgary, due to bad weather. YOU MEAN...WE MIGHT NOT GET HOME! Calgary was under a weather warning, with about 15 cm of heavy snow falling! We were going to Alberta, but might not be able to get home. And if we got home, we might not have our luggage. Great choices!
But, we did land in Calgary & only about 10 people didn't receive their luggage. After about an hour waiting in the baggage claim area the team slowly straggled out to meet family and friends. We were safe...we were home...and the trip had finally come to a close.
Thank-you to all of you who were praying for us, we had many situations where in retrospect, we know the hand of God was over our team. Now it's time to start following the travels of the Grade 12 team as they begin their mission in Guatemala.
Hasta Luego!
DAILY ADVENTURES AND REFLECTIONS OF THE GRADE ELEVEN MISSION TEAM
