A slightly grumpy man and a fire alarm...

Shhhh….. don’t tell my grandparents… the fire alarm is going off at the airport… but the man in the speakers has told me like a hundred times now that I am supposed to stay calm, remain alert, and listen for further instructions while the alarm is being verified. It’s been going off for 20 minutes now… it stopped once for a brief 3 seconds and then quickly came back on. I asked one of the airport employees if this was a real alarm going off or if this was just a test …because no one was moving or doing anything different. Everyone here is acting like the flashing lights and sirens are not going off and going about their business like usual. I guess it must be the ‘stay calm’ speech that has played two hundred times now…

So I got to the Des Moines airport this morning around 3:50 am. I’m glad I didn’t go any earlier. I found out that you can’t check in before 4 am. So, in case you ever have a flight at 5:30 am from DSM, don’t get there before 4 am. (that’s was a free tip :) ) So, I check in at the little automatic kiosk thing and all my papers are in my hands, my passport is out, my purse is unzipped, my driver’s license and credit card are out, and the guy at the counter is calling my name already and you can tell, he’s slightly grumpy. So, I’m trying to hurry to get to the counter and he expects me to know the process as if I’ve done this a hundred times before. Did I mention that I have a carry-on suitcase, 2 suitcases to check, and my laptop bag too? Right… He tells me as patiently as he can what to do but you can tell he is very frustrated. As an international passenger, I am allowed 2 checked bags, and for some reason the auto kiosk thing charged me an extra $60 to have the 2nd bag. I knew this was a mistake, but I didn’t think the slightly less than helpful guy behind the desk was gonna want to help me.

So, I get my luggage checked and ticketed and I drop it off at the place and I decide I want to talk to someone else about the extra $60 charge. So, I go back to the counter and talk to this new lady that just showed up. Her name was Gail. (I highly recommend her! She was awesome by the way!!!) So, back to the story… She discovers that not only was I charged the $60 incorrectly, but the first man tagged my bags so that they would stop once they got to Atlanta, instead of straight through to Johannesburg. So, she tells me all this and asks if this is what I wanted and I told her no, that the luggage should go on my next flight to Joburg automatically. So, I have to run back over quick to the x-ray place where I dropped my luggage off and take it back to Gail so she can put the correct tags on the bag.

In the ordinary, you would think that I should be mad at this man who tagged my bags wrong or frustrated that I had to run around the airport twice with ALL my luggage, or upset that they charged me $60 when it was not necessary… BUT I am SO thankful that I was charged the extra $60! Why would that be, you ask? I would not have had any reason to go back to the counter if I hadn’t been charged the $60 and Gail would have never discovered my luggage was tagged wrong… Thank you Jesus!!!!

Gail explained to me that my luggage would have just sat at the airport until someone figured out that I hadn’t planned on picking it up in Atlanta. She said that they would have forwarded it on the next flight to Johannesburg and left it there. That wouldn’t have worked though because I am catching another flight right after that one. SO, I would have been in Africa without my luggage if it weren’t for a small mistake of $60…

A small mistake to reveal a great big mistake… How many smalls mistakes are there in your life that open your eyes to something much bigger that you would have never realized had that little ‘mistake’ never happened?

Thank you Lord for life’s little ‘mistakes’ which… I don’t really think are mistakes at all!

And yes, the fire alarm stopped going off and we didn’t have to evacuate or anything :)