Lost Luggage

I hope that the following story doesn’t give the impression that I’m a nervous traveler. Sure, in the past, I’ve been known to freeze at border crossings. And once in the past I blurted out, “just some hats” as a nervous reaction because I didn’t know what else to say when asked if I was bringing anything into the United States.

But that was a long time ago. I’ve since mellowed and learned a few tricks to help me relax when people with guns and huge heaps of power are asking me questions about my travels.

There are times still when I hear of people doing things in their travels that make me shudder. Recently that person has consistently been my wife. For example, when entering New Zealand we saw signs everywhere warning of the penalties for bringing food into the country. Signs warned of fines and jail time, and I think even death (I could be wrong on that last one) for the fool who would bring food into the country without declaring it.

Sheena said we didn’t need to declare the snacks we were carrying, and checked the customs form in accordance. This made me nervous. I was ready to declare everything that could possibly be food related. I even threw a few crumbs of something out because I didn’t want the dogs saying I was carrying something. I was anxiously sweating profusely. I don’t know how a guy who looked as guilty as I did got in.

Last night Sheena was packing for a trip to Calgary to visit friends. She was packing some medical supplies to give to my sister who will be leaving shortly to spend some time volunteering at a hospital in Pakistan. The medical supplies are all things that hospitals here throw away. Things like scissors that were only used to cut a piece of tape, and blood free tourniquets. She wanted to keep them all securely in a bag and thought that a discarded bio hazard waste bag would do the trick.

I don’t know about the baggage screeners in Comox, but if I saw luggage containing medical equipment with a bio hazard waste warning on it, I’d be shutting the place down. There would be guys in special orange suits coming in to take readings and safely remove questionable luggage and all other luggage that came into contact with it.

There’s no way I’d be trying to get that on a plane.

At least it wasn’t a sharps container.