Day 1 - RDU to CLT to MIA to Lima, Peru

The speakers blaring overhead use more English (even though they translate every word they say into Spanish) than the people around me . I'm sitting at Gate D49 at the Miami International Airport, but I feel like I've already crossed some type of frontera (border). As soon as I got off the plane at MIA, almost every person I've passed speaks Spanish. The airport cops driving around in their comfy golf carts greet other airport employees in Spanish. The people passing me in navy blue suits and rolling their bags marked "crew" chatter in Spanish. I feel like a foreigner in my own pais (country).



...Or maybe it's just because this is my first time flying solo (or sola in Spanish). Maybe airports are always like this. Usually, I'm too busy laughing with Reagan or listening to my music to notice the people around me. I'm glad, though, now to be doing things on my own. I'm getting more out of it this way.



Por ejemplo, I've met an angel at each stop so far because I was on my own and not holding back. In Charlotte, I noticed all the people at my gate had only two carry-ons (including a purse). I began to get nervous. I have my bookbag (and might I add that it's heavy), over-the-shoulder purse and rolling bag. The more I looked around the seating area, the more I realized that I had too many pieces. Finally, I got up the courage to turn to the friendly-looking, older lady on my right. "Excuse me, ma'am, but does a purse count as a carry-on?" This simple question opened a floodgate. That sweet lady, once she found out I was from Dunn , talked my ears off! She was from Benson and had a daughter who was also studying abroad (in Argentina). We boarded together, complained about the cramped plane together and chatted all the way to cloudy Charlotte. There was even that awkward moment when we got off the plane of "do we hug?" I wasn't nervous for a minute because she was there.



My second angel actually came to me in a pair of two older Ecuadorian women. I got off my flight from RDU to CLT and saw them ahead of me, trying to talk to an airport employee. The communication gap was noticeable from afar. As I approached, I heard some English words spoken with a Spanish accent...very haltingly. I pulled my bags up beside them and offered to translate. Thank God I had just brushed up on my Spanish airport vocabulary because the employee needed me to point out their next gate. I asked for their tickets in Spanish and, in glancing at my own boarding pass, saw that we were headed to the exact same place! I told them to follow me. We chatted as we walked to the far side of the Charlotte airport. Then we sat, waiting, for an hour and continued talking. I asked them about home in Ecuador, and they, in turn, asked me about my trip to Peru. At one point, the more talkative lady asked to borrow my cell phone. She had to make a call to her son in Durham. I quickly offered her my phone, saying in Spanish, "No big deal. It's actually free because that's my area code!" The conversation between mother and son was heart-wrenching. She kept calling him "Pepito" and saying how much she loved and missed him. When she hung up, she was crying. She smiled through the tears to tell me muchas gracias. "De nada, no problema," I replied. I then, in turn, thanked them the Spanish practice. They shook their heads fiercely, saying in Spanish, "No no! You are an angel sent to us from heaven to show us the way home." I almost starting crying right there in the middle of the airport. When I arrived in Miami at the baggage claim, I saw my new amigas pointing at me and waving. I nodded from across the sea of faces and began dragging my 100 lbs of luggage behind me.



This is when I met my final angel. I had walked about a mile when I stopped for a rest. My backpack was hurting my shoulders and lower back and both arms were sore from pulling 50 lbs each. As I stopped, I wiped my brow and said under my breath, "Whew!" I then noticed a luggage cart station nearby. Sitting beside them, a smiling security guard pointed at a loose cart. "Take it!" he exclaimed. I slung my bookbag around and began to dig for some cash. "No no," he said, "just take it." I smiled so big my cheeks hurt, and I thanked him profusely. These angels are the reason I am now sitting, at ease, in MIA. I can only hope my next and final stop has so many kind and helpful people!