Stuck!

July 25th, 2020| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

You might remember the Spielberg movie, The Terminal (2004), starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones, about a guy from the fictional Eastern European country Krakozhia who arrives in New York only to find that his passport is now null and void because of a military coup back home. Stateless and homeless, Viktor (Hanks) is stuck in JFK for over 9 months.

Well, that was fiction. But another real life stuck-in-the-terminal story has recently emerged.

Roman Trofimov. In the departure area of Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Mr. Trofimov, an Estonian national who was traveling around Southeast Asia, arrived in Manila from Bangkok on an Air Asia flight earlier this year. Upon landing, he discovered that the city was in lockdown, so he was not allowed outside. But by then Air Asia had canceled all its outbound flights. And airport authorities wouldn’t let him leave on any other airline but Air Asia and only to go to the destination from which he’d come. They confiscated his passport for good measure.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on. They took my passport and sent me to Terminal 3. Without my passport I couldn’t so much as leave the building to get a breath of air. I had to sleep on the floor of the terminal and eat snacks and candies that I was able to buy from the vending machines, because most of the stores were already shut.”

The Estonian authorities got involved and struck a deal with the authorities, and Mr. Trofimov was moved into a 37-square-foot room with a bed, a fan, and shared bathroom facilities, a room specifically converted for him. And two meals per day.

Without fresh air, no direct sunshine, and poor nutrition, the unfortunate man’s physical and mental state worsened.

I was a vegetarian when I arrived here, but since then I’ve been forced to eat chicken with steamed rice. All of the stores are closed and I can’t provide myself with a balanced diet. I feel unwell, have a disability, and my back hurts because of the way I was forced to live here. My budget is small, the phone and the internet are very slow. There’s no one to count on to get me out of the situation. Most of the day I’m busy just with survival. I feel like I’ve been put in jail for no reason, because I committed no crime.”

The airline took no responsibility for what had transpired, and Mr. Trofimov said that they blamed him for his misfortunes!

And most of the airline’s staff isn’t working because of the disease, and the people that are working talk to me like robots, like they have no human feelings.”

Finally after many dangers, toils, and snares—110 days later!—the poor guy was put on a plane back home by the Estonian foreign ministry.

You might be feeling like Roman Trofimov in these strange days. Stuck! Or maybe throughout life.

For a child of God, a believer in Jesus Christ, that would be … normal.

Therefore we do not lose heart,
but though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us
an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen;
for the things which are seen are temporal,
but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16–18

Nope, “this world is not my home I’m just a passin’ through.”

SOURCES:
Times of Israel; US Sun