Let us rewind to January 2011 when I first left for Peace
Corps. If you remember it was quite the
hassle trying to leave. First, the programme I was accepted into was canceled
and my application was put on hold until they could find a new programme that would
fit my skill set. (That’s a whole other
story, but clearly they dropped the ball when it came to finding a programme
that would match my skill set, considering my primary assignment is teaching
remedial reading, and I have a masters degree in materials science and
engineering, but I digress).
Anyhow, when I finally was accepted into a programme I was
due to leave in January. In the beginning I was set to leave January 27th. However, the Peace Corps was going to bump my
flight due to a huge snowstorm on the forecast.
In the end though they didn’t end up moving up my flight. Yet when I
arrived at the airport, the ticket agent told me that I was not booked for the
flight. Way to go Peace Corps. After
many calls to Peace Corps and working with the airline, most of which were
canceled due to weather, I finally got another flight to Miami for
staging. Not first without having to go
back home until later in the day and having two layovers and arriving a day
late, thereby missing all the staging seminars.
At the time I clearly remember thinking. Maybe I am not meant to be a Peace Corps
Volunteer. If the first programme was
canceled, and they had difficulty finding a new programme and now its taking so
much stress and effort to leave, maybe I shouldn’t go.
Obviously nothing in my life is easy. That’s just the way it
is. So why would this experience be any different? I had a rough start to my
Peace Corps journey, the entire experience has been rocky and now trying to
return is not going well “none ah tall”.
It started out fine, only because I had an early flight out
of St. Vincent. I was even lucky enough
to get my neighbor to drive me to the airport. When I got to the airport,
things continued smoothly. I boarded in St. Vincent with only a 10-minute
delay, which in LIAT terms should be considered on time.
Next, I arrived in Antigua for a connecting flight to St.
Maarten. I have flown thru here before, and although it’s annoying, you must
get off the plane, go through security again and wait for your connection, it
shouldn’t be too big of a problem. My layover was only about an hour. However at the time I should have been taking
off (10am), an announcement came over the system stating that the flight was
delayed due to “maintenance issues”. The next message that I heard stated that
the plane was late because it would be arriving late? That was at 11am. That
was the last I heard until about 1pm. At which point an announcement came on to
begin boarding for the flight. When I got
in line, the ticket agent made an announcement stating that the flight was no
longer going to St. Maarten but instead straight on to Tortola. She said to
wait until further instruction. After
some time, we were allowed to board the plane after all and the plane would be
going to Tortola first and then St. Maarten.
Once boarding the plane (at around 130pm), we proceeded to
wait in a hot cabin with absolutely no information concerning the delay. We waited for about an hour, at which point
passengers started to get perturbed and began speaking up. Sometime afterwards,
the flight attendant made an “announcement” asking two volunteers to step off
the plane so that two others could get on, as all the seats were full. They would receive a “small fee” of $150
(though we are still not sure whether that was in EC or US dollars) and be put
on the 4pm flight to St. Maarten. It took about another hour to sort out that
issue. Once that was sorted out, it
appeared as though some maintenance workers were inspecting the engine. Again, we were not informed of what was going
on at all. Soon, it was realized that
the two people that needed to get on the plane were two other LIAT employees,
one of whom was a captain in training and another captain, who had been on the
plane the entire time who we were under the impression were the captains of
this flight. We continued to wait in the heat; hungry, annoyed, hot,
tired. Again after waiting, an
announcement from the “actual” captain of the plane stated that the LIAT
employees were to disembark the plane and remain in Antigua. We therefore waited for over two hours to
sort out seating arrangements for these two LIAT employees who eventually ended
up not flying. All the passengers were
about to throw a coup. It’s frustrating
that the two volunteers had to get off the plane and the seats remained
empty. Not that they lost much,
considering we only left about 15 minutes before their flight (was due to
leave). In total, we waited on the hot plane for 2 hours on the tarmac, in
addition to the 4 hours in the airport.
Needless to say I missed my connecting flight to the States. Surprisingly when I got to immigration, the
officer was extremely friendly and helpful. What a first! I was instructed to speak with the LIAT agents
in regards to them putting me up in a hotel, seeing as though it’s their fault
I missed my flight. When I got to the
counter, there were approximately 8 ticket agents, however 6 of them were wearing
visitor training badges, all having personal conversations. I stood there a
minute without any one of them acknowledging my presence. After sometime, I
demanded that some one help me, do they not see me, really? I told them the
situation where they proceeded to look up my information. They told me that my flight was not a “true
confirmation” meaning they did not have any knowledge that I was connecting
with US Airways, so therefore it was not their responsibility to put me up for
the night. You have to be freaking
kidding me.
Additionally, there were no ticket agents or US Airways
Representatives at the time. Evidently
they had all left for the day as all the flights had left. My only option was to arrive early in the
morning to sort out a new flight since I could not check the status of flights
with no Internet.
The only redeeming aspect of the entire LIAT experience is
that all my luggage arrived in St. Maarten, on time, and nothing seems to be
missing or broken.
Again, Peace Corps, really? First you tell me I have a flight
and I get there and its not booked, now you cant even confirm the flight? So what do I do now? My phone doesn’t work in
St. Maarten and the airport doesn’t have Internet. What airport doesn’t have Internet? Even
little ol’ St. Vincent has free Wi-Fi. WTF? So I was literally stranded, I
could not call anyone or check my email to inform Peace Corps or my family of
the situation. I finally was able to use a telephone at a shop in the airport;
the man was kind enough to lend me.
Luckily I got through to Peace Corps who made arrangements
for me to stay in a hotel for the night. This did not go without its own
challenges. First, they could not get thru to the hotels, because the telephone
numbers were invalid, and they could not get on to me, since my phone was not
working. I was very grateful the shop owner lent me their phone for a small fee
of $5US. It was around 6pm now, it was dark and pouring rain and I had two bags
that each weighed approximately 50lbs. I had to navigate to find a taxi. I should also mention the other significant
challenge in this puzzle. I only had $6US dollars. Thanks to my grandmother, or I wouldn’t have
even had that. I only had EC dollars, which no place in St. Maarten accepts,
except this nice man who owns the shop, however I didn’t know that at the time. Therefore, when I got into the taxi, just as
a polite courtesy I told the man I only had ECdollars. He kind of thru a fit. But it’s all I had. What did he want me to
do? I wasn’t planning on staying in this country. He seemed to think that the
hotel would exchange the money, and I didn’t really think twice about it, why
wouldn’t EC be accepted or easily exchanged here, we are in the Caribbean after
all. This proved naïve. The man ended up
getting $3US and $30EC. I think he made
out in the end, for a 6-minute taxi ride, with no hills.
The lady at the front desk of the hotel was nice enough, I
guess. Although she did give me some
attitude about the EC dollar issue. I
really don’t see the issue. Its not like
I wasn’t willing to pay the taxi driver. Its just all I had was EC. They seemed to think that there would be no
place to exchange it, which I find hard to believe. Anyways, she already knew
who I was, when I proceeded to check in.
This went smoothly enough as Peace Corps already made the
arrangements. She asked if I needed
anything else, at which point I asked if there was an Internet code. She told me I had to purchase Internet. There was a bit of pity in her heart after
all and she gave me the code for free. She said after the hell I been thru for
the day, if she didn’t do this for me then she had no heart at all. Thank you. Unfortunately, it did not work. Not sure if the code was not working or the Internet
itself was not working. I almost tend to
think it’s the Internet in this country that it does not exist.
I tried to call the front desk to get a new code, but she was
unhelpful and said she would call back, but never did. I still have not spoken to my mother to let
her know where I am or what has happened.
Which brings me to the next point. Since I was not expecting
to be staying in St. Maarten for more than the 4-hour layover, I had no change
of clothes, no toothbrush, no deodorant, nothing. Thankfully the hotel itself
provided some shampoo. Otherwise I don’t think it would get even a terrible
review. There was a dead coach on the floor, no Internet, horribly
uncomfortable bed, and no hot water. The service was minimal and below
expectation and quality of such an esteemed country.
The only redeeming quality of the hotel is the morning front
desk attendant. She was personally willing to exchange EC dollars for US
dollars (she often travels to St. Kitts and Anguilla where they use EC), if the
security guard was not able to drive me to the airport. I was so grateful that she was able to get
the security guard to drive me to the airport and/or personal exchange money to
eliminate another fiasco with the taxi drivers.
Overall, I would not recommend travelling to St. Maarten. I
found the overall atmosphere uninviting, unfriendly and just generally
unpleasant. Aside from the LIAT employees mostly every one else was ok. The immigration officer who was nice, though
minimally helpful, the shop owner who was extremely helpful, and the night front
desk attendant who had good intentions, though again was not very helpful, and
the morning front desk attendant who was not only pleasant at such an early
hour but willing to help and actually followed thru.
At long last I made it back to NY, only to freeze in 40F
temperatures.
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