Thursday, March 7, 2019

After a lot of emails, phone calls and persistence by Roger Sharp and Julian Harnish from MDS, I finally received approval from FEMA ( Federal Emergency Management Agency ) to book my travel, early this morning.

As instructed, I contacted National Travel and after spending an hour on the phone, my flights have been booked.

I fly from Buffalo to Washington DC at 6:15 am tomorrow ( Friday )morning.

After a 1 hour layover in Washington, I have a 10.5 hour flight to Honolulu, arriving there on Friday at 2:17 pm local time ( 7:17 PM EST ).

I leave Honolulu at 3:15 pm and arrive in Guam on Saturday at 7:05 pm ( 4:05 am EST ) because we will be crossing the International dateline and Saipan is 15 hours ahead of EST.

Since there are limited flights to Saipan, I will have to stay overnight in Guam and leave on Sunday morning at 7:30 am, arriving in Saipan at 8:11 am ( Saturday 5:11 pm EST ).

I checked with Rogers and although Saipan as part of the Commonwealth of Northern Marianna Islands, CNMI, is a US territory, it is not covered by my phone plan, so I will try to get a local phone plan when I get there.

Now all that’s left is the final packing before leaving for the Buffalo airport at 2 am to make sure that I clear the border security in time to make the flight.   It’s a little early  but I have been detained and questioned in the past about my ” volunteer service “.

I’m sure it will all go well and I am looking forward to this opportunity to help rebuild homes in Saipan.