Arrival in Lima and Problems in Customs

Tuesday, July 12, 4am

Lisa and I arrived in Lima around midnight. We were cautiously optimistic that we would be able talk with customs about the donations based on the 2015 experience. Customs told us to bring a letter from our church proving that these were donations.

Changing our flight with LATAM

Filing a baggage claim

We waited for our baggage. Only one of four bags arrived. It was the bag that contained the 500 rosaries and Deb's personal items. We continued waiting for the other three bags of donations to arrive. People continued picking up their bags and only six people were left standing at the conveyor belt and a man from customs walked over to us. He asked, "Are you Lisa Bixby and Deb Passino?" He then asked us to go to the customs desk and mentioned that three of our suitcases were in Orlando. The three suitcases that remained back in Orlando had the 50 water purifiers and other miscellaneous personal things.



Artists Conference

We filed a claim and had to reschedule our flight with LATAM. We were told that the suitcases would come in today, Tuesday, July 11, at noon. We rescheduled our flight for 4pm this evening to arrive around 5:50 pm in Piura. Thanks to LATAM, we stayed at a really nice hotel in Lima called Novotel. They also paid for our transportation to and from the hotel.

We need to work with customs at 1 pm today once we pick up the suitcases that were left behind in Orlando. Please pray that we are able to take our flight this afternoon and not have to another day in Lima. As much as we like Lima, we'd like to get to our Paita home to spend time with our sisters at St. Clare School.

Deb Passino