Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Stop Me If You Think That You've Heard This One Before

"Misplacing" items is a part of life. House keys and car keys go missing and no one cares. If you misplace your wallet or purse, you make a couple of phone calls to the credit card companies, and life simply goes on, possibly a few dollars the poorer, but life goes on. Certainly eyebrows are raised and anxiety goes up if you misplace your baby or young child. But misplace your passport and life will never be the same. Your name lives in infamy, and seldom do you see a friend without being reminded of your past transgression. My unfortunate story begins in ebeye, home of chaotic happenings and the epicenter of all things misplaced...



It's mid December and the year long project is at its conclusion. Our barracks that housed sixteen people must be taken apart loaded into containers and shipped of to one of our future projects. Tools, house supplies, lumber, and "personal items" all must be packed into containers as well. The construction crew is dwindling in size. People are moving as rooms become fewer,and we are still putting the final touch on the kingdom hall and missionary home. There was a lot going on.



I had moved a couple of times within a short period of time, and I wasn't planning on being in ebeye more than just a cople more weeks. So I never really unpacked. All my belongings were in a couple of suitcases and a couple more plywood boxes. Although there was a lot going on, everything was moving along according to plan. All were working hard and everything was falling into place, except for two things. 1) our final aircargo from Guam that was needed to complete the project was delayed because of all the freight being moved around the holiday season. 2) the cargo boat was delayed and no specific time had been given for its arrival into ebeye.



Early one morning I received a call from the container company(matson),they said the ship had arrived and they were on their way to pick up our final container. Point being.... ANYTHING that we needed to ship out had to be in that container ASAP. All other activities were put on hold and items were packed into the container with a quickened pace. I quickly assessed what I could bring on the plane( I was going to be the last to leave the island) and what I needed to load into the container. We successfully loaded the container and had it shipped away to Guam, home of our next construction project. A sense of relief and peace came over me. All that was left to do, was wait for the cargo from Guam. And wait we did. Earlier in January united airlines finally flies our cargo to Kwajalein. In order to pick up our freight we need to take a ferry to kwaj. and then receive clearance from the military to be permitted on the military island. The end is near.... Or so I thought. As I approach the immigration counter I reach for my wallet to show my ID. It hits me... I forgot my wallet at the missionary home in ebeye! How stupid!.... And then it hits me....my ID does me no good, I need my passport!... Where is my PASSPORT???!!!...whatever joy or relief I had been experiencing up to this point had now fled. Disbelief reigned supreme. "Surely I didn't pack my passport into the container headed for Guam. It MUST be at home hiding under a sock or in between two pairs of under clothing. As soon as I got back to the missionary home I went looking for my "Misplaced" passport. As many times as I searched is as many times as I came up in want of a passport. As embarrassing as it is to lock yourself outside the office during your night watch somewhere in the middle of nowhere, it is infinitely more embarrassing to realize that you have trapped yourself on a little island the size of a thumbnail, somewhere in the middle of the pacific ocean. My passport was on a boat headed to Guam, and I was stranded on the island of Ebeye.

Believe me, being stranded on Ebeye was not the horror of this story. I really enjoyed living there. The nightmare was informing the Branch of what had happened. As a side point... It's amazing how quickly news like this spreads. When I finally made it to Guam, EVERYONE knew of my story. Not just the friends at the Branch, not just my friends in the construction crew and on the island, but even my friends on ALL the other islands knew! The greeting was always the same.... I heard about your passport! Always accompanied with a smile and a laugh.... I want to explain how it's not my fault that this happened, but there is no excuse to be found nor any reason that I can come up with to shift this blame. I'm THAT guy. I put the baby on the top of the car and then drove away.

9 comments:

  1. After waiting for a story i'm speechless...right when I thought: Matt has hit the limit of crazy stories. NOPE...you always manage to beat the one before. Well bro, glad to hear your well and can't wait to read more stories. Take care! -Kristy

    ReplyDelete
  2. Little did I know that reading your blog would be quite the entertainment...and yes, it was entertaining to hear of everyone talking about "the passport". Look at it this way though, at least you're THAT guy that has the interesting yet sometimes embarrassing stories to tell. What would we do without THAT guy?... We'd have to read blogs with no stories and constant grammatical errors and missing punctuation marks and signed "klem-david". haha!

    ReplyDelete
  3. if you put it that way naomi/karla/carla, i'm happy to be THAT guy. i loved your comment, even if it was at the expense of our friend "klem-david"! ........kristy, it's always good to hear from you. thank you for being so patient between posts. hopefully there won't be such a gap in the future

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're welcome, and I look forward to more stories...perhaps of other job site critters. Taco (or whatever that "handsome" dogs name was) misses you. And speaking of "klem", how is he? Haven't heard from him in a while. I guess, he doesn't miss his favorite cousin!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "klem" is on the dark side of the moon. he's in laura where they have no internet.... he did mention how much he missed his favorite cousin though. you should have rebekah call him.... just sayin:).......taco post to come!

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i have never enjoyed sending a package more than i enjoyed sending your passport back to you.....

    ReplyDelete
  7. coming from you that is quite a compliment! i'm a little surprised though. what about that kitten you put in a box filled with cat food and then shipped around the world? i thought you were really excited about sending her on her "journey". what ever happened to that little cute, fuzzy, and adorable little kitten "amelia earhart" ?

    ReplyDelete