The week after my return from Africa my internet was down. I arrived back in India, thinking I would have the opportunity to talk to my family and friends again, catch up on my email and finances, and maybe write a final post. Instead I arrived to find the internet was not working. This isn’t particularly abnormal as my ISP fails here maybe once or twice a week, however I called in just to make sure. I was told someone would be out within the next few hours. I wasn’t surprised at all when failed to show up at all that day, and since it was Saturday I had to wait till Monday. Once again he failed to show up. Finally on Tuesday he came to my house looked briefly at my modem and said he had to go check the line. Following that I was told everyday that the line would be fixed by early afternoon, until Friday when I was finally reconnected with the rest of the world. The week without connection was certainly a set back but “Ob-la-de Ob-la-da” as the song goes. The main point is that I forgot to post the following:
Considering the fact that I have been traveling almost non stop for the last nearly three years and all the stories I hear from others, of delayed flights, lost luggage, and other traveling headaches, it seems rather amazing to me that I have never really had any problems. A few flights delayed by a max of a couple hours. Once British Airways lost my reservation and didn’t have me booked on the plane I was supposed to be on, but since I found out the night before and was at my sisters it only meant an extra night in Milwaukee hanging out with Mandy. The worse thing thus far that had happened was when on an AA flight my screen wasn’t working and I flew for 14 hours without any movies. My flight from Lagos Nigeria to Chennai India, seemed destined to rectify this odd history of smooth and problem free flights. To begin with I arrived at the airport to find out that the previous days flight had been canceled due to technical difficulties. This meant there was a whole plane full of people waiting to get on my flight. It should be noted that I was flying to India via Abu Dhabi a rather prominent destination from Africa. I was wondering if this would cause difficulties, but the only difference was that the plane left an hour late. This was also worrisome as my layover in Abu Dhabi was only a couple hours. As it turned out the plane not only left late but traveled slow. We arrived in Abu Dhabi about the time my plane for India was taking off. But Emirates surprised me again, with a lady waiting at the exit asking all travelers to Chennai to follow her. The plane was being held for us and we needed to hurry across the terminal. Great, except what about our luggage? Are they really going to get all the luggage transferred in time? They assured us that the plane would wait until not only for the passengers but until the luggage also was unloaded, transferred, and reloaded on the correct flight. As it turns out they didn’t quite live up to this promise. Arriving in Chennai, my luggage had indeed been left in Abu Dhabi. However Emirates had informed the Chennai people of this mishap, and before I even had a chance to look for my luggage they told me exactly where it was, got my address, and later that evening delivered it to my apartment. Since I had plenty of other clothes at my apartment, this was hardly an inconvenience. In fact if I had the choice of waiting at the carousel to get my bag immediately or having it delivered a little later to my apartment , I think I would prefer having it delivered. So in the end despite the ominous circumstances, this is a story of an airline that obviously does it right.
Now I’m back in India, I have a few weeks of preparation and then its time to hit the road again. I’m only going to be here in India for three and half months, in that time I will be here in Chennai for something around six weeks. We have many exciting things on the calendar. The Joint Asian Pastoral Conference, a CLCI Visitation and teaching at the seminary in Nidubrolu, a couple weeks traveling around Moses and Victors’ districts, and to top it off my first trip to the Andaman Islands. You can take a look at my calendar for a more detailed itinerary.
Lord’s Blessings,
Matthew Ude