Well, in spite of Murphy's law we are here in Mallorca.
1. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. (Murphy's law)
2. Anything that can go wrong, goes three times wrong. (Murphy's law when dealing with any government).
When several things can go wrong, they will go wrong and will do a lot of harm. (A natural consequence of Murphy's law)
3.
4.Nothing is as easy as it looks.
5. Everything takes longer than you anticipate.
6.If several things can go wrong,at least one of these things will cause more trouble than all the others put together. ( the second natural consequence of Murphy's law)
7. If you are well aware that anything can go wrong and you try your absolute best so that nothing goes wrong then there's always something else ,that you didn't think about, that does go wrong.
Well, in spite of our good friend Murphy, we all arrived safe and sound but later than we had hoped for and so we are hours and hours behind schedule.
When we arrived in Rome, Mykias and his mother, because he was in a wheelchair, were helped to disembark from the aeroplane and taken to a different part of the airport from the rest of us. Needless to say, no-one thought to advise us of this and left the two of them to their own devices.
Unbelievable but yes, it took us FOUR hours to find them. Having had no other option, we all had to split up. Martha and her teacher continued on their journey to Mallorca and two of us stayed in the airport in an effort to locate Mykias and his mother, no mean feat in an airport like Fiumiccino which easily qualifies, in our humble opinion, as the dirtiest and most chaotic airport on this entire planet.
Miraculously as it might seem, we did eventually find the two poor souls. We had to buy new airline tickets because we had missed our flight, we had to wait in Rome for seven hours before catching the next flight to Barcelona and then a further four hours in Barcelona before boarding the aeroplane which would fly us to Palma de Mallorca.
Without going into any more details, Murphy's law was fulfilled right up to the last letter and absolutely anything and everything that could go wrong DID go wrong.
We finally eventually arrived in Mallorca at about 2.00 in the morning after a mere 27 hour journey.
Since Martha and Aldana had arrived on schedule (at 3.00 in the afternoon) they managed to enjoy a very pleasant trip to the beach and then later visited some of the beautiful places on this island.
Meanwhile,taking into consideration his weak physical condition, our dear Mykias coped admirably with the interminable hours spent in the two airports, his sole relief deriving from the treat of dining in MacDonalds in the memorable airport of Rome and the overwhelming views of the sea he could observe from the plane( as we approached our haven and much-loved Mallorca.) He even mentioned that he preferred MacRubbish to
" injera". Mykias is a child who rarely smiles (he has had few occasions to do so) but, my goodness , when he does, the whole place lights up.
Martha has been admitted to Son Dureta hospital today ( July 6th). She will have her operation on Friday ( July 10th).
Mykias will be admitted tomorrow (July 7th). He was exhausted when we reached Mallorca and unfortunately he is in a worse state than he was three months ago when we last saw him.
His mother is prepared for the worst.
Lets hope that he recovers and if not we will, at least, try to make his visit with us as joyful as possible.
Despite our continual battle with Mr. Murphy,on our long journey from Addis we have had the privilege of coinciding with some of the most affectionate people you could ever meet. I dearly thank all of those who work with the disabled in all of the airports that we used and particularly the assistants in Barcelona airport who at all times were loving and kind to Mykias.
I barely have the words to express the emotional welcome given on our arrival at Mykias' "adoptive" home where he will reside when he is not in hospital. The father of the family who has "adopted" Mykias and his mother during their stay in Mallorca gathered this child in his arms, carried him out of the car,( he had fallen asleep on the journey from Palma airport )this small, feather-weight child, tiny as a delicate bird and carried him to his bed with great tenderness. What a kind-hearted, lover of mankind.
What would we do without people like this family? What kind of world would we live in without them?
Today,too, our group of volunteers have rolled up their sleeves and gone into action.
Since we left Murphy at the airport everything is now going according to plan.
The child who shares the room with Marta in the hospital is a little "sweetie".
I leave you now until my next update. I have lots more to tell you but I need to recover some brain power after our odyssey.
Thank you so much for making it possible to bring Martha and Mykias here to Mallorca.
Victoria
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