The Headache of Finding Our Luggage in Panama

Nov. 13,2013



Tocumen International Airport, Panama City

Helena arrived at our house at exactly 5: 45A.M. and Stan drove both of us to the airport. We were surprised that the highways were already crawling with commuter traffic. We arrived at the Pearson airport early and were able to have a cup of coffee before boarding Copa airline to Panama.

The flight was uneventful. It took only five hours of flying time from Toronto and we arrived at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, Panama!

Touching down at the airport

This is my second visit to Panama with our church short term mission team therefore I kind of knew what to expect at the airport.

However, what we did not expect was how long it took us to retrieve all our luggage. Between Helene and me, we checked in three pieces of luggage, but we only found two when we went to the baggage claim station. We landed at the airport at around 2:10p.m, but we were still waiting for one of Helena’s  luggage by 3:45p.m.

We were  anxious as we knew that Pastor Monica and the brothers and sisters from the Panonome church were waiting to pick us up outside the custom area.

Flag of Panama

I only know a few words of Spanish but the airport staff was very helpful and polite. Finally, we reported the loss to the airline giving them all the detail information. Just before we left the luggage area, we took one final look at all the  unloading stations. Lo and behold, it was Helena’s missing luggage coming down on the conveyor belt.!



A chapel inside the airport

We Felt so bad when we finally came out of the customs area and were greeted with enthusiasm by Pastor Monica, Mr. Chen and Crystal. Poor thing, they were worried sick and had been waiting patiently and looking for us for two hours !

It was well past 5PM when we hit the road and the traffic was congested. Crystal, a law school student in her early twenty’s , was driving us to Panonome. I would have great difficulty driving in Panama as there did  not  seem  to be a lot of road signs on the highway and there were lots of twists and turns. Mr. C. was navigating and was a great help to the driver giving her the needed instructions to help find the way.



A sculpture at the airport

We got to the church in Penonome at around 8pm ( Panama has the same time zone as Toronto,  Canada, so we did not even  need to reset the time on our watches ) and received a really warm welcome from the church people there.

Crystal’s parents were cooking up a storm. I learned that a couple people from the church ordered   fresh local fish and shrimps from the fish market and the tiger shrimps ( they were huge!) that were served for dinner were just fished out of the sea at 5pm this evening! How fresh could you get for seafood!

There were a dozen adults with half a dozen kids and we had a great meal together at the church house. I was glad to meet the many friends I made here last time.

Look forward to the next two weeks working with the church people here in Panonome, Panama!

R.T.

Penonome, Panama