Guess what? We're still in Peru! In case you didn't know, that was not the plan. We were supposed to be home by now, enjoying our nice hot shower, and cozy bed while the boys played with their new toys and we all just generally relaxed. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Well I guess it wasn't meant to be.
We left yesterday afternoon around 2:30pm to fly to Panama. We only had an hour layover there before our connecting flight to Washington DC. About an hour and a half into the first flight, Darius threw up all over himself and Luis. Literally, all over. I have never seen so much come out of such a little kid. At the time I started dreading the rest of the trip. I assumed that with the luck we've been having, they would both be sick by the end of the day, and we'd all be covered. As it turned out, that would have been the preferable option.
When we tried to board in Panama, the woman told us Luis couldn't get on the plane because his green card had expired. It never occurred to us to check it since we are up to date with all his papers. The INS should have sent us a new one by now, but since they take forever to process everything it hasn't come yet. We tried explaining this to the woman, and she said we should have asked them for a letter stating that its ok for Luis to come back into the US. We asked what we were supposed to do and she said the airline would put us in a hotel in Panama and he'd have to go to the embassy to get a letter, and once we had the letter they would get us a new flight. Other people joined the conversation at this point, and there was a lot of back and forth. We were really unhappy with the solution offered, especially once someone told us today is a holiday in Panama so nothing would be open. Not to mention that we don't know anyone or anything in Panama, and we had $9 in our pockets. The woman we were dealing with was not helpful at all, she said it was our fault and basically our problem. She even said that they would only pay for Luis' flight back since the boys and I could have gone on the flight without him, and we chose not to.
Finally after a lot of talking in circles, and talking to another, more reasonable, woman we came to a decent solution. This woman recognized that it was not entirely our faults. The airline employees checked his green card in Miami and Panama on our way down, and in Lima on our way home. No one else pointed out to us that it had expired, if they had we would have been better off left in Miami or Lima where at least we know people and know where we're going. So they sent us back on a flight to Lima last night. At the airport (where they lost our bags again) they had someone waiting to drive us to the house. We called the embassy today and they told us to come in tomorrow afternoon with Luis' passport, green card, and three passport pictures and as long as his papers are all in order they will give him a travel card that will allow us to leave. As soon as we have that we have to call the airline and arrange for a flight. We asked the man when we would be able to get a flight out, and its looking like Saturday at the earliest.
I feel so terrible for the kids. Taye has been asking to go home for a few days now, and I told him yesterday that we would be taking a long plane ride then a ride in the car and we would be home. I thought he would lose it when we came back to Mamita's house last night, but he seemed excited. He is asking to go home again now though. Its hard for us to be here still, I can't imagine how it is for him, and I hate that I can't fix it for him.
This whole thing is almost surreal, I think I'm in denial or something because I'm actually feeling ok. If you had told me the other day we'd be stuck here for another week I would have lost my mind, but I have been ok with it since we left Panama. I believe we have all our bases covered now, and it should just be a few more days before we are home for real. Hopefully.
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