Canceled Flight

Shortly after arriving at the gate, which might have been the one furthest from the terminal, and definitely the farthest from the exit point of the shuttle, we learned that our flight had
been delayed, and then canceled due to mechanical problems. Suddenly our overnight flight turned into a three-day journey. When the announcement was first
made, it was unclear to me if the airline was going to provide a hotel room for us for the night, in part because the announcement was made in Portuguese. I also got to make my first (and so far only)
call to the Ops center at the main State Department building. They connected me with Post One (the name for the Marine post) at the US Embassy in Brasilia, who then put me in touch with my sponsor, the family assigned to help us adjust to life in Brasilia. I also made a call to our church friends who had driven us to the airport as a contingency plan in case we needed to return to Falls Church.

After about an hour of waiting in line, we were given vouchers to for hotel rooms and meal vouchers. I only requested two rooms, and when Rebecca pointed out that it might be more comfortable to put the teenage boys in their own room, I wandered about the terminal building trying to find an open United office to request other rooms, which by the way is near baggage claim after 11PM. After so many years of having to pay for our own hotel, I just asked for what we normally would get. In reality, we were entitled to eight rooms since we had purchased eight tickets. Changing rooms also meant changing hotels, and I had left my family waiting the hotel shuttle for the old hotel, which happened to be at the opposite end of the terminal. Anyway, we finally made it to our rooms at about 2AM knowing that we would have to be back at the airport by 9:30AM that morning.