Friday, July 4, 2008

Honduras: The Luggage Story


Everyone gathered at a downtown apartment to load up all the medicines and supplies into empty suitcases at 8pm the night we left. We had a 50lb weight limit per checked bag. Arriving at the airport we realized that a scale at the apartment would have been a good idea. We spent about 30 minutes rearranging the weight in each large bag. In the end, everyone checked 1 or 2 bags, all full of supplies. There were two more smaller bags that were checked containing the large liquids of people traveling (since TSA doesn't allow more than 3oz of liquid to be carried on, things like shampoo, lotion, bug spray were in the checked bags).

(Do you see where this is heading yet?)

We arrived in San Pedro Sula, Honduras without any problems. We had just one more flight to get to Tegucigalpa. The small plane had 2 propellers, and not much of a luggage hold. Many bags were stacked against the door to the cockpit. It was a rough journey, lots of bumps. We arrived at Tegucigalpa in one piece. Yippie! We waited for the little luggage carousel to drop off the bags... and some were there.

Six were not. What was missing? A suitcase of vitamins, orthopedic supplies, and one of the small bags with liquids. Stephan and I personally lost shampoo, bug spray, razors, his pocket knife, and a $250 water purifier. Ours was also the bag full of orthopedic supplies like ankle casts, walking casts, shoulder splints, and large amounts of disinfectant.

Last we heard no one knew the whereabouts of the luggage. If you're reading this from Honduras, we'll pay the shipping. Please send our stuff back.

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