I was at the NWA airport by 1pm for my 3:16pm flight. I wanted to get checked in and my luggage turned over asap. I am tired of lugging that stuff around! One bag was 51 pounds and the other was 53. Luckily, they didn’t charge me overage. Yay!
I have a very tight transfer time at the Houston airport, and I was booked in the back of the first plane, so I paid $19 to sit in the very front seat. I don’t usually like sitting there, since there is not a seat in front of me to put my backpack under, but it’s worth the piece of mind to sit there today so I can hop off the plane really quickly and high-tail it across the terminal for the international flight.
I just talked to Mary. She’s at the Little Rock airport waiting for her flight. She gets to Houston about 45 minutes before me. She said she would throw herself across the plane’s doorway so they couldn’t shut it until I get there. Haha. We may both end up in the pokey!
I got through security really quickly. Since I’m so early, there was no line at all. I didn’t even have to have a pat-down search. Too bad… I was looking forward to the attention. Ha
I would much rather get to the airport early and wait here after getting checked in, getting rid of the bags, and just being ready to hop on the plane.
My ears are still full and I sure hope that they don’t give me problems on the flight. They don’t hurt, they just won’t drain. I’ve tried all kinds of things to no avail. Maybe the hot humid (or dry) air in Nic will fix me up. I’m just praying for no earaches in flight.
This morning I had a nice time of finishing the very last packing of personal items, cleaning my rooms, washing the sheets on my bed and remaking it, sending out some emails, etc. I took my last ride in the missions mobile and went through Chick-Fil-A’s drivethrough for my last North American meal of grilled chicken sandwich, cole slaw and very puckery handmade lemonade. Yum! Jet was quite confused by all my suitcases. He really wanted to go out the front door with me. I’ll miss him.
My sister Pam had her last tests today before her breast and gallbladder surgeries on Dec 3. I think she’s glad to get these tests all done. Next step, surgery and getting better! How wonderful! I hope that she feels the love of God, the perfect healer, through all of this.
I feel like I could easily take a nap right now. I’ll be really tired by the time we make it to the team house tonight around midnight. But it will be wonderful to wake up in Nic in the morning!!!
The flight to Houston went like clockwork. I was so thankful that we didn’t have any delays of any kind. God gave me a peace for that. I grabbed my carry-on bags and headed to the tram to get to another terminal. I tried calling Mary 3 times, but just got her voicemail. I was hoping that her flight was there and everything was fine. I stopped by Schlotsky’s and grabbed a sandwich to eat sometime during the rest of the day. Yum
I met up with Mary at our gate. After getting my passport checked for the flight, I settled in for the few minutes left before we were to board the plane. I heard my name called over the speaker and thought uh-oh, I hope there wasn’t a problem at this point. But all they wanted was for me to give up my seat so that a family could all sit together. They moved me to an exit row seat that had extra leg room due to not having a seat directly in front of it. This seat costs a little extra, but they let me have it for free for moving. I would have moved to any seat, I didn’t much care since all the seats would get me to Nic, but it was nice to stretch out my legs for the 3 hour flight.
I dozed a little bit on the flight. My ears did okay. They just popped a little and didn’t explode like I was fearing. I was even hoping that maybe they would clear up from the pressure changes during the flight, but they were still full and actually kind of roaring from the drone of the engines. But I was thankful for no pain.
They served us a meal of packaged cheeseburgers, salad and cookies. I ate the salad and cookies (Pepperidge Farm Milanos) and ended up throwing away the cheeseburger. I didn’t even want to try it and I was going to give it to my seat mate when he finished his, but he must not have liked it and threw away part of his. So I just tossed mine.
We arrived in Managua and got our luggage. Mary didn’t want to have to tip the porter who had a cart we could use, but we had so much heavy baggage that there was no way we could carry it ourselves. I told her I would be glad to pay him. Of course, she fussed at me for tipping him too much. ☺
German met us at the door and brought the van around. Another porter and German loaded our heavy bags in the van and we left. A quick stop at On The Run (the convenience store) for water, juice and some snacks, and we were on our way to the team house. We chatted throughout the long drive and ran into just a few little holdups, like a road construction site that down to one lane and no one to direct traffic so it was every man for himself (of course the big trucks got preference).
It was so nice to get to the house. Saturnino met us at the gate and looked very sleepy. He and German carried those heavy bags upstairs for us. Yay! Mary and I put our cold drinks in the fridge, she prepared her coffeepot for the morning and we headed to our beds.
I listened to the ocean, but couldn’t see it in the dark. But I knew the promise of that beautiful view that would come in the morning. It’s kind of like heaven I think. We know by faith that the view we will see when this dark life on earth is over will be the most beautiful thing we could imagine. It’s right beyond our earthly sight. But it’s there, it’s wonderful and it’s from God.
I’m so blessed to be able to serve here for the next 7 weeks. It will be interesting meeting the 2 teams coming (Thanksgiving week Christmas week). They have been here before, but I have not met them yet. Then those weeks between teams will be different and interesting as Mary and I get to go out to the villages and teach and minister our-selves. It’s going to be an awesome time of watching God work. I can’t wait to see what He is going to show me and teach me while I’m here. My eyes and my heart are wide open.
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