first things first…what would have been five days of consecutive, nonstop travel has been temporarily postponed. matt williams and i currently waiting in bangkok for three of our girls to meet up with us. if you know anything to do in bangkok, let me know before tonight, we’re 12 hours ahead of the US eastern time…bangkok fun for two christian twenty-somethings…
our travel started three or four days ago in Santa Domingo, Dominican Republic, continued on to Miami, then L.A., Tokyo, Bangkok, and will continue in a day or two into Penom Pheng, followed by my team traveling alone into Siem Reap. Here’s a fun travel story from Miami International Airport.
My passport was scanned at customs, and immediately, the eyes of the customs agent got big. with a panic, he nervously looked at me, looked back at the computer screen. aware something had caught his attention, i watched his hands type, “suspect possible b12.” he then called over the the largest, meanest, most intimidating police officer to escort me to a desk where a second man asked me several questions. “what is your occupation?” was the first. i responded, “i’ve been a pastor for about four years, but this year i’m travelling the world as a missionary…” “riiiiggght…” he said, annoyed and obviously thinking i was feeding him a line of bologna.
i was escorted by the second largest police man i’d ever seen into a room that reminded me of a department of motor vehicles office…but i noticed something. i was the only english speaker in the room, other than those at the counters. everyone else was either middle eastern, or carribean black…be that haitian or dominican. i guess there were a couple eastern europeans thrown in the mix, too. there were two people working the counter who were making fun of the people in the room, thinking no one brought into this room ever speaks english.
i laughed at their jokes, and then they started talking about me. “look at the way this scummy guy is laughing. i can tell you just by the way he laughs that he’s guilty. what a scumball…” annoyed and caught off guard, i glared at them as they talked about me. it was then they realized one person in the room spoke english. i was called to a desk to answer questions. they asked me things like my mothers maiden name, social, height, weight, etc. i was then told, sit down, we’ll call you in a few minutes…i have a connecting flight to LA, mind you that will take off soon.
well, fifteen minutes later, a man calls me to a back office where i answer the same questions, but then answer questions about my last two months of ministry. he asks me if i was the one who flew out of miami with my passport on january 3rd. i said yes, and explained what i’d been doing, then he turned the computer screen around, showing me a picture of myself in the airport today, and a picture taken the day of january third. (i need to tell you, living in the carribean, i’ve gotten tan. i’ve also lost 40 pounds this trip. so i look very different…very different…) he points to the two pictures, “there is no way that the man who flew out on the third is you who are sitting in front of me right now. explain!” i tried to talk about kidney stones. i tried to talk about a lot of other things…but he didn’t believe it so he called a government office. five phone calls later, i was allowed to leave the office and join the rest of the clan leaving.
i asked on my way out…”why’d i get pulled in here.” his answer, “there are apparently a few other people named dave brown.”
(i later found out a known felon would be flying into miami later that day on a passport with the name Dave Brown. hope he had to get pulled into the back room too…)
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without going into details, i made it to LA, to Tokyo, and to Bangkok. three of our girls got delayed in Miami, however, so i’m waiting for them to get to Bangkok to escort them into Cambodia. I’ll be here two days, so if you are in the area, or know of anything, let me know! pray for the girls travel from LA to Bangkok. Pray for our teams travel, as they ride a bus to Phenom Pehn today, and pray that Matt and i dont get lost in Bangkok…at least not too bad…
