The Terminal

Nick and I are beginning to feel like Tom Hanks off of the Terminal. We are stuck here and have no where to go. Things just keep going wrong. When we booked our tickets, we had to buy round trip tickets because the DR wants you to prove you are exiting. We told the lady that we did not want to exit there and that our proof was that we were leaving Haiti. She said that this would probably work but we would have to check with the night manager that came in several hours later. She said at the very least, we would be able to move around the day of departure and time.

When we went back to checking our bags (we weren't allowed until 8, therefore we had to carry our huge bags all over with us) we were told that there was no way we could cancel that part of the flight because we had not purchased the "refundable" ticket. We explained that we weren't offered this and that we were told we could still change it. Long story short, we are apparently flying back out of the DR, which means we will loose another day on the back end of this trip. The flight leaves the DR at 4am, which means we will have to leave the day before and either stay in a hotel for a few hours or sleep at the airport. She said that if we call we might be able to get this switched, but we will see.

This airlines charges $25 per bag, so we decided to take the bag of garnola bars as a carry on to save some money. Good idea right? Wrong. It would have been a good idea, except when we were repacking this morning we didn't pay attention to where our liquids were because we didn't have to go through security with Lynx. Before I left I bought a giant bottle of shampoo and conditioner that I was planning on leaving in Haiti for when we return in July. The bottle is so big that it will last me the full year!

Luckily the rest of the group was still behind us, so Nick was escorted out by security and shoved it into someone elses bag to be put underneath. We keep feeling more and more thankful that we became friends with everyone here. While Nick was coming back through security, there was a man in front of him who didn't speak English. The man was holding a sleeping baby in his arms and trying to take off his belt, shoes, wallet, etc. He was unable to do this, so he shoved the baby into Nicks chest and Nick had to hold the baby while the man went through security! Nick said that he turned red and the security gaurds laughed at him. They also laughed when the bag with 30lbs of garnola bars went through the scanner. He even called his friend over to take a look!

We are now checked in, 3.5 hours early!! We have reserved our bus from Santiago to Cap, but we have to take about a 30 min taxi ride from the airport to the bus station. We are hoping to be in Cap around noon tomorrow, but we'll be so tired that we will probably want to take a nap. By time we get to COTP, it'll be at least 30 hours since we woke up this morning and began traveling. Our short trip keeps getting even shorter. The good news is that Jamie and Jenny said others have come in via the DR and have said that it is nice!

Nikki