Thursday, October 16, 2008

My Secret Weekend Trip



Volleyball

Volleyball is a fun sport. I played some in high school, college, and on a few beaches. When one of the owners of the Bed and Breakfast told me about a Saturday volleyball match I jumped at the chance to play.

The volleyball matches are held at a banana plantation every week. Robert, another guest and I headed down the one lane road to the plantation. On our way there we saw a guy standing along side the road, not looking well. Robert stopped the car and I went to see what was up. When I got up to the man, things were a lot worse than I thought. I could see both of his arms were broken, and the bones were sticking out of the skin. This clearly was an emergency.

The Puna District is quite rural. So much, that it would have been difficult to get an ambulance to the area where the incident occurred. Additionally, our mobile telephones don't work either. Joel, the victim was almost going into shock, so I did my best to help him out. He told us about a 24 Urgent Car facility in Keaau. We carefully loaded him into the car and headed towards the facility. During the ride, we did our best to help calm his nerves and prevent shock from occurring. After about 30 minutes we arrived at the Urgent Care facility to find a big closed sign. Bummer.

We got back on the road and drove towards the nearest hospital in Hilo. After searching for the facility, we finally found it tucked away in a residential area. We located the emergency room and left Joel with the staff.

It felt good helping him out. He was quite appreciative.


In the Middle of a Domestic Situation


I was hoping that I would be in First Class for the flight between Kona and Chicago on the way home. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. So I happily took my Economy Plus seat on the Boeing 777. Seated next to me was a 17 year old girl.

Just before the aircraft door was to be closed, a woman came over and was chatting with the girl. She was standing in my extra 5 inches of leg room scolding the girl. The aircraft door was being closed and the flight attendants came over to ask her to take her seat which was further back. She asked the flight attendants to take away the iPod the mother was asking for. The flight attendants couldn't take away the device. After a 10 minute delay, because of the hysterical woman, the flight took off. Less than one minute after the seat belt signs came off the woman was back, scolding the teenager even more. Then arms appeared near mine, it was the girl's father.

I had enough, they had not said excuse me, pardon me, or asked me to get up so they could find a solution. Zero respect for me and the other passengers. I was hot, and needed to walk, so I went and chatted to another flight attendant. I knew it wasn't their place to do anything, because it was a domestic situation. I chatted for a bit over an hour and then some type of resolution was in place.

When I sat down the flight attendants came over an provided me a few complimentary drinks for putting up with the women. So, there is still some caring in the airline industry.

Remember, if you are going to fight on a plane please respect the other passengers.

1 comment:

CJH said...

Oh my...this made me laugh out loud... "Remember, if you are going to fight on a plane please respect the other passengers."
HA!

By the way, nice job out of you for helping the person in need...very commendable!