Following the day after Christ ascended back to heaven the eleven disciples once again gathered in the early hours of the newly formed day… discussing the challenge of ‘Going Forth into All Nations!’ Profoundly they laughed and spoke of their sleep deprived bodies even before the trip had begun. Some napped, some got a few hours of eyelid crack inspection while others chose not to sleep due the excitement of visiting with our good friends in Honduras once again.
A trip of this sort is not something that is thrown together on a whim, but months of careful planning… checking and even rechecking that all of the ‘T’s” are crossed and the ‘I’s” are dotted to ensure that the trip upon the great aluminum condor would flow as flawlessly as possible… Enter in Lama… A former team member from years gone past that has for various reasons been unable to join us in the land of honeydew due to, but not limited to college… career… and life in general. It was from the adventures from years gone by that she received her nickname Lama due to the situation she once tried to purchase some homemade funnel cakes and offered to pay in ‘Lamas” not Limps. Thru the years of traveling abroad she had exercised the usefulness of her original passport… Hence this is where the drama begins.
The team caravanned…. Wait a minute. I think I just spoke of the whole planning thing in the last paragraph… Rather than having a van to carry the luggage as in years past, it was not available for use. Try cramming 15 pieces of luggage, 11 people and their carry-on’s into 2 compact imports and 1 small SUV… I am not sure if it was by God’s Grace or the years of our team building exercise called, “Packing a Van like a sardine can.” None the less we headed down the road to pick up Senor Mater from the Blue Box Hardware Distribution Center and travel on down to the Queen City for an early morning TSA fondling session.
Arriving early for your trip never hit home quite as much as it did when the Counter worker discovered that Lama had brought her expired passport… Not sure if she wanted to have on last great adventure on it… or was simply a mistake… None the less it looked as if she was not going to play any ‘Going 4 wide on a 2 lane road games.’ The team spirit sank to a new time low at the moment that we realized that we may lose a member even before we boarded the carnival ride.
Lama Mama to the rescue. Given the option that if… The newly acquired passport could be retrieved… raced to the airport (which is 1-1/2 hours away without traffic… and somehow scanned 30 minutes before the next flight to Hotlanta… Vegas bookies were giving odds of 60-1 shot of the miracle occurring. We boarded our flight with heads hung low and our thoughts of the one we left behind… Unaware of how the events were transpiring as we lifted off the ground our hearts remained grounded with the Lama.
Much to our joy and surprise we heard the good news that the Lama Mama came thru, and the Lama was able to board the next flight. Just as the boarding call was announced for our flight over Lake Evendin… In walked a stressed out but relived Lama. We celebrated with roar of applause and proudly presented her with the ‘AM’ of the day award. In all the years of this prestigious team award that has been given out… She has raised the bar not only in level… but in the speed of acquisition. The AM chorus chirping over my shoulder as I write… We arrived safe, secure and a little less scattered in SPS on time. Glad to report no darkroom visit needed to escape the condors nest, as we passed thru the glass door there were our longtime Amigos… Maynor, Danela and Super Mario Franscisco awaiting our arrival.
This year’s team is a frothy mixture of experience, the return of a few from MIA and a couple of newbies… A father son combo affectionally named Dirk and JJ. I will elaborate on those two in the next episode of ‘How the BLOG is Dunn!’
Marco Francisco Valle Valle
Honduras Agape 