22 Amazing Hours with 60 Tents

Up before 3:00 a.m. yesterday morning, Josh, Laurel and I left Northampton at 3:15 a.m. with the van loaded full of 12 duffle bags carrying 60 tents destined for Haiti. (Thanks, Paul, for loading the van the night before.) It began one of the most amazing trips I've ever had. This trip was completely covered with God's grace. We arrived at Bradley at 4:00 am, wondering a little how 3 of us were going to manage 12 bags and 3 carry-ons...that was 4 apiece and some were oversized and weighed 70 lbs. Well, there was a porter at the curb who loaded them all on his dolly. I drove the van away to park and found a space in the front row right across from the terminal...literally a 30 second walk. At the international counter we were waited on by a warm, friendly agent who kept thanking us for what we were doing. She was generous with the weight on our baggage, and even at 4 a.m., wasn't the least bit cranky about how many bags we had to check. She started the day off right for us! She did warn us that the plane from Miami to Nassau was smaller and it was likely that not all of our duffle bags would make it on, but there were hourly flights to Nassau so they'd be there on the next flight probably. At security we were scanned like usual. They thought the earthquake alarm that I was sending down to Amoce was a little weird, and they looked in one of the tents we were carrying on. Thankfully, they shrugged their shoulders about the tent stakes they found inside the tent they searched. The rest of the 4 tents went through without a problem. Our plane took off on time, we even had an exit row with extra leg room. The connection at Miami went smoothly, and we were in Nassau by 12:30. We went through immigration, then to baggage claim where ALL TWELVE bags were sitting there waiting for us, along with another porter who loaded them all on her dolly. Going through customs, the agent there asked us to open 4 bags. He was a little perplexed by bags full of tents and kept asking us where the "stakes" were. I kept telling him they were inside the rolled up tents. I finally asked him, "You've never been camping have you?" To which, he laughed, and waved us on our way. We phoned Cameron at Bahamas Habitat, and as pre-arranged she sent a large van over to pick us up. The van driver was Matt, one of the pilots. I recognized him from having met him at Les Caye airport in January; he may be the pilot that flew Greyson home. We unloaded the duffles onto another dolly, then wheeled it into the warehouse where we unpacked all of the tents. We found out that Habitat is making their final flights to Haiti on Sunday; were were JUST IN TIME! Matt and Cameron assured us the tents would make it to Les Cayes before Sunday. They even said they would personally phone Amoce to tell him when they were leaving. They are such super nice people! We got back in the van, headed back to the airport, checked in without any problems, went through US Customs including full carry-on searches and body pats. Then we had 2 hours at the gate to wait for our plane to Miami. Another great connection. A three hour wait at Miami, and miracle-of-miracles our flight from Miami to Hartford took off on time! The plane wasn't full and we were able to move around to emptier rows. We all got some good nap time on the way back. At the baggage claim we picked up our now-empty duffles and lo-and-behold, the same agent who checked us in that morning was there handling baggage claim! We were able to show her the photos so she could see the fruits of her labor, too! We arrived home by 1 a.m.!