Friday October 28, 2005

1:56am…Standing in the early morning air outside the convention center turned refugee shelter, we are told we’re going to take a van ride together to the place where they are giving out a limited number of handwritten boarding passes for the two flights that are leaving Cancun today. If we get there early enough, we’ll get a pass and be allowed to enter the airport. People will be lined up in a line longer than I can imagine.

Yesterday when Tina and I returned from Tulum, we were shocked to see that many of the refugees were gone. We don’t understand where they had been taken. Everyone had agreed that we would bind together and not be taken to Moon’s shelter where things are even worse than here. However, we now hear that many were convinced to go, based on a promise that if they went, they’d be closer to the airport and that Chaza travel can get them to the airport earlier than most can get there. I hope they have not been lied to again and are going to be sitting there for days to come. The guys that went from our shelter over to the Moon came back and said in a meeting this AM (while I was in Playa trying to put together the caravan) that there were only about 60 people left in the Moon shelter and that they had been told that the rest were on their way home. How can this be?? There were over a thousand in there yesterday!! How could they all possibly be home??? I don’t know. Many of us think that perhaps they got out, went to hotels in the area and are taking care of themselves however they can. Maybe a lot of them did get out. All the travel agencies seem to have gotten their customers out. Those of us that used Chaza Travel or made our own flight arrangements are left to figure all this out and get ourselves out of Cancun. It would have been nice if Palace Resorts and Chaza travel had let us know the procedure for getting to the airport and onto a flight. This especially would have helped when Brian and his wife went to the airport, were turned away and then taken to Moon where they pitched a fit until returned to Aventura.

I learned yesterday also, that after the email went out, the US Embassy and other US government agencies were on this place like a swarm of locusts. When Tina and I returned, the soggy wet and smelling carpets in the hall had been cleaned, the maids had made up the cots to look like beds, the elderly had been given mattresses, and the cooks and waiters had spread a massive gourmet buffet fit for a king. Everything looked completely different than when we left in the morning. The stench of sour carpet and body odor had been cleaned up and they had soft music playing on speakers and the AC running, since the electricity had returned the evening before. It was like night and day!

Based on this, and the promise that they would be taking us early in the morning, we decided to change our plans of taking a bus to Mexico City and just go with them to the place to get boarding passes. They have also promised to return us to Aventura shelter if we do not get a pass and flight out of Cancun today. So, here we stand waiting for the shuttle. If this flops, or they have lied again to us, we will take a bus ride to M.C.

3:30am

The grassy area that they have us waiting in line is wet and muddy. My sandals are covered in mud and my feet are stained. I left my suitcases on the van that brought us so that I won’t have to drag them through the mud. It’s cold and we are fortunate enough to be here early. There are about 100 people in front of us. It looks like we’re going to make it!!! We’re tired, and only slept for about an hour and half last night. But tonight we’ll sleep in our own beds! Gloria brought a towel and four us are piled up on each other trying to keep warm and maybe get a nap if lucky.

7:30am….we’re finally in line to board a bus!! We got the passes and are told to stand here until the buses come at 9:30 to pick us up for an 11:30 flight to ATL. The sun has come up and it’s getting hot now. I’ve taken off my sweater and am getting a bit of sun on my shoulders.

10:00am….We’ve boarded the bus and are waiting for something….I don’t know what. But we’re just sitting here…I don’t care. At least we’re on our way home!!! I let Linda and her husband get in front of me, much to the dismay of the people standing behind me. Gloria stood up for them too. David, her husband was here yesterday all day trying to get a boarding pass for him and Linda. After standing in a line all day with his cane and leg injuries from a work accident, they told him he was in the wrong line and sent him to the Delta line where he stood the rest of the day. When he got to the front, the agent told him that he had to get his wife to come with him. They did not give him the passes he needed and he was forced to return to the shelter to join his wife. And so, this morning when I got here, they were standing across the street in another line. Then as the sun came up, many from that line were forced over to our line for Delta and Linda and David didn’t know whether to move or wait for someone that had promised to help them at some point. I told them to come stand in front of me. David’s legs are burnt severely from the sun and are swollen. He’s using his cane and I’m sure he is hurting.

12:00noon….we’re on the plane!!! David and Linda are sitting the very front row!!! I saw them as I boarded! I laughed!! It was too funny. This flight was an unscheduled flight (DL9855) and had general boarding. First class section was filled with children and David and Linda! Everyone applauses when the doors are closed and we are happy to leave Cancun!!

we’re finally home…..4:39pm ATL