Where is my suitcase?

I thought I would take a few moments to let those of you who have been following our Chilean Adventures know that my suitcase HAS STILL NOT ARRIVED. I was very excited a couple of days ago, because I has a call to tell me it was being delivered to my house. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be mine, and furthermore was stuffed full of unmentionables - see below. I have now written to Air France, and decided to copy you all in .

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a Senior University Lecturer in the UK who has been working hard on collaborative work with international colleagues for the last 18 months, in order to be invited to present at our World Federation Congress. This happens once every four years and this occasion was to be held in Santiago, Chile.

Much work had gone into the presentation, securing the funding attend, and indeed in considering the image I wished to present to my professional peers across the world. To this end I packed my bags very carefully with clothes and work related items in readiness for my trip.

Air France delivered me safe and sound in Santiago, but unfortunately my luggage was nowhere to be seen. Whilst I was made aware of the immediate needs fund, as I was only in Santiago for 4 full days, and these were booked for the conference, I had no opportunity to shop. My professional image was not therefore, quite what I had been aiming for (jeans and t-shirt, rather than a smartly tailored suit). If it wasn’t for the generosity of colleagues I would have had no access to clean clothes, electronic devices or other such necessities of conference life.

I still do not have my baggage, and it is now 4 weeks since AF lost it. I have been given a case containing men’s underwear, but unfortunately this isn’t acceptable. Whilst I acknowledge that baggage can and does go missing, my complaint is aimed at the way in which your customer service department have managed the process since then, particularly;

1. The loss of my time and money in making almost daily calls to AF

2. The lack of continuity in information and direction (see timeline, attached)

3. The sheer number of mistakes made by your customer service team

4. The limitations of the immediate needs fund

5. The loss of my claim for immediate needs compensation

6. My total lack of faith that my claim for total loss compensation will be managed in professional and timely manner.

I am writing to you in the hope that you will ensure my claim is now handled appropriately, and that you can illustrate that your procedures are actually fit for purpose. I have been documenting my professional trip via the University of Salford blog at www.frederickroad.blogspot.com and on Facebook, which I also use for professional purposes. My loss of suitcase has been much discussed, with a colleague composing a little ditty that I thought I would share with you:

You've lost my case, Air France, Air France


and now I've got nothing to wear


All I've got is a man's dirty pants


and clothes that I'm having to share


bum bum.

It would be nice to have a happy ending to this situation would like to think that there could be a speedy and successful resolution to my concerns as I would rather not invest more time and energy in seeking legal advice. I am currently submitting a claim for total loss compensation. Please could you ensure this is managed appropriately?

Yours faithfully,

If this letter doesn't work, I might have to resort to creating something like this video. To tell you the truth, I quite like the idea of it. Who wants to join in?

Of planes, airports and home

The journey home!

Taxi arrived early so we were happy to be on the move at last. Both Porter and Taxi driver seemed bemused that there was only one case between us - saying "lost" accompanied by shrugging of shoulders and splaying hands palm upwards in front seemed to do the trick. Journey to the airport was mainly in silence due to tiredness and Sarah needing to finish the good bit in her book - after which she remembered why she normaly doesn't read in moving vehicles!
The views from the taxi began to demonstrate the diverse distribution of wealth - from urban palaces through to a huge shanty town of what could only be described as huts with corrugated iron roofs - more like sheds I guess.
Arrived at airport and immediately to the Air France area to discuss the suitcase situation. After speaking with the check-in girl, then her supervisor and then a long wait for someone in baggage we finally learnt that her suitcase had been on its own holiday with a Turkish airline and was now in Paris. They promised that they would inform Paris to send to the UK and they would deliver it to Sarah's home. Now, call us pessimistic if you will - but we have little confidence of this!! Sarah asked to be upgraded for the inconvenience and we were told that the plane was full (didn't believe this either!).

It was at this point that Sarah lost control of her non verbals and every employee of AF was treated to a harsh stare as we went from check-in to departure area- stopping en route to eat - which restored humour a bit.

At the departure gate we were met by the girl from check-in who was waiting for us with new boarding passes - she had given us exit seats so at least we had leg room- and thus saving the rest of her colleagues from the Bodell stare.

There was again a third man on the end of our row - but true to form about half an hour into the flight he disappeared so we spread out a bit (I wonder of we should be proud that we seem to have ability to make people disappear - or concerned?). In fact at breakfast (about 10hours later) - even the steward was asking me where the gentleman had gone !
Little sleep was possible on the flight so we dozed on and off, watched films and read - for ever it seemed - then we finally reached Paris - and for the first time we were in the same place as Sarah's suitcase although for a brief moment!

After practising a little french - oui, merci! we went to the departure gate - delay of about half an hour on our flight but manageable. Sarah could almost smell the imminent possibility of full iPhone access once again and in fact as soon as we touched down at Manchester she was on facebook!

I reunited with my suitcase with a sigh of relief, Sarah was told yet anther story about how she needs to go about getting her case - still not convinced that what they have found is actually hers.


So, we come home to spring sunshine, a hung parliament, chaos on the stockmarket, and an empty fridge. After dropping me at home (thanks), Sarah's dad then took Sarah home to kids, dog and empty fridge.

Thus ends our Chilean adventure, we thank you for following our exploits and for all the support. We will of course be following up on some of the issues we have raised here and at conference so watch out for other related posts. And we will of course inform you of the eventual conclusion of "Suitcasegate". Am off to stock the fridge, unpack and get ready to teach on Monday.
Bye for now.............................................(PS check out earlier posts later - I shall be correcting typos, adding photos and creating relevant links later today)

As we prepare to leave.........

We have an hour before the taxi arrives to take us to the airport and home so we thought we´d spend time summarising our fantastic journey.
Status: money -OK, weather rain overnight but now warm and sunny, luggage: Sarah´s still awol - did have visions of it turning up just as we checked out -but not happened. UK airspace clear of volcanic ash from unpronouncable volcano. Very, very tired not helped by sirens and horns and sounds previously unknown to man outside the hotel at 4am this morning. Decided that was not imminent ending of world so went back to bed.

Briefly managed to catch up with friends over breakfast and wish Dan Johnson (practitioner of the world) and Joanne Inman (Lancashire Care Foundation Trust) best of luck for their presentations today. We will be keen to hear how it all goes when you both get back to the UK. Note to Dan from Sarah: please be judicious of your use of the photograph you took of us at breakfast as I have three day old clothes on and a rather haggard expression!!!

After packing my suitcase (trying to shield as much of this activity from Sarah as possible) we headed out to the local Mall to do some last minute shopping for gifts (think Manchester Arndale on a bad day!). After 20 minutes even we couldn´t find anything more to buy so returned to hotel for final snooze and check out before 12 noon.

As we wait for the taxi, how can we summarise this experience:
a) looong and tiring journey
b) own clothes not essential for ADL but preferred
c) cash essential
d) iPhone not essential but preferred
e) there is great merit in international networking both real and virtual
f) the value of the conference lies less in the formal learning opportuniites and more in the potential to develop relationships.


So to answer some of our original questions
a) should OTs be involved in disaster/emergency scenarios? WFOT had a whole stand at conference and have been working hard at engaging discussions in this area. Our own discussions came to the initial conclusion that working with survivors/victims in re-establishing roles, routines and communities can be a vital role for occupational therapists as can working with the "powers that be" who are in the political arena to ensure that temporary communities can meet the occupational needs of those affected.

b) Is there a difference between networking using online social media and travelling the world to network? Yes, but both are valuable and can be effective in initiating and maintaining personal and professional links
c) Is the uk system of healthcare stifling occupational therapy? Hmm maybe not ready to put our views here yet - more reading to be done
d) what do a group of international OTs look like? suitably diverse in age, gender, culture and personality. Whilst one may suggest that there are OT stereotypes within certain arenas there doesnot seem to be a one size fits all stereotype as to what an international OT looks like

OK. so some acknowledgements before we dash......
a) Thanks to Sue Braid our Head of School for her support and trust in us to represent the School on the other side of the world. We hope we have served the role well.
b) Thanks to our colleagues Anita, Merrolee and Karen who have been an inspiration and a motivating force and with whom we have spent many hours of laughter, fun, visionary thinking and hard work - all in a good cause and we can´t wait for the next stages of our master plan. We wish you luck with our presentation on Friday and are so sad to be missing it - but you will all be inspirational I´m sure.
c) Thanks also to those of you who have been following our blog and offering support and sympathy as relevant - especially Kirsty, Heather and Jackie in the OT team and facebook friends Denis, Helena and Gail and Bronnie

We will write of our journey home later and once home our intention is to revisit the posts and create links and upload photos so please visit again when you get chance. Wish us Bon Voyage. Adios until later.........

Of Planning, networking and fond goodbyes: Our Last full day in Chile:

So, we made it to conference for another day. Weather: overcast and rather chilly (excuse the pun!), solvent - just, still no suitcase for Sarah. Today the bus arrived at a more human time so we were able to have breakfast and ride to the conference in style (reclining leather seats in a bus!). Scenery on the way to the centre goes from urban through suburbia, industrial and finally mountainous - unusual but maybe couldn't be described as beautiful. Strange looking wall lined much of the dual carriageway which preoccupied Sarah for most of the journey imagining it to be a vast scale climbing wall - however think the sticky out things were more likely to be there to hold stuff and not people.
First stop - coffee (of course) and in the queue we got chatting to a Professor Josman from Haife in Israel. Very interesting to hear of their successful undergraduate and post graduate programmes - they usually have about 400 applicants for 60 places on the UG programme. They also run a Doctorate in OT. We explained a bit about our MSc Advanced OT programme that is delivered entirely online and has a great international focus (taking applications now if anyone is interested - contact Sarah for more information).

Soon realised that Sarah's luggage situation was the talk of the conference (well nearly!). Usually most people started a conversation on an expectant "so has it arrived?" and then complimented me on my clothes sense given that we were sharing a wardrobe.

We made contact with Michael Iwama at the conference reception and had a long chat with him. We welcomed him as a recent Honorary Professor at Salford University and as someone who has been a keen follower of our MSc programme and has often given us glowing feedback we are delighted that we will be working more with each other in the future. Michael is due to visit the University in June of this year (watch this space for more details soon).

The plenary session found us sat at the very front of the auditorium immediately in front of the podium in between WFOT council members and Team Chile. I was just following Sarah who seemed to be woman with purpose in finding seats. We now expect to be seen on all official photos from the morning session! At this session we learnt that there are 324,757 OTs practicing in the world and 702 WFOT approved programmes. Three countries were awarded associate member status at council this week who are working towards developing OT programmes - the Seychelles being one of these - good luck to you all.

Towards the end of the session we learned of a project in the pipeline working on issues of social media that Ritchard Ledgerd was leading on. Before we could say "time for coffee" Merrolee had found us (not hard given where we were!) and had marched us towards Marilyn Pattison of WFOT to say "we're your crew" or words of that effect and was pointed towards Ritchard who was stalked until cornered by us (but he did used to be a colleague of Sarah's at Fazackerly hospital in Liverpool ). Whilst slightly stunned into submission he very quickly regained composure and was generous and welcoming of our experience and offers of contribution. Merrolee was then on a mission to strip us of our British reserve and got us to practice admitting and owning the fact that we (OT4OT group )- are leaders in the field of online knowledge transfer for occupational therapists - scary thought!

Later on we were able to meet properly with Ritchard to start the ball rolling in beginning a WFOT project team for these issues and were surprised to hear that WFOT staff are all volunteers.
It was at this point that we heard of more problems with the volcano with the unpronounable name spewing out volcanic ash. Consenus would appear to be that we should be Ok to enter UK airspace on friday lunchtime - but given our track record to date - we are trying very hard to remain hopeful!

So we finally left conference having made some new connections, re-affirmed existing connections, established friendships, raised the profile of University of Salford and our occupational therapy programmes,  and created a "to do" list longer than Sarah's climbing wall. Our brains are now stuffed full of innovative and creative possibilities and we are re-energised in spirit if not in the physical.
All we hope for now is that Sarah's case does not arrive in Chile once we have left. Our final post will tell you of our journey home - assuming we make it that far.

Night night.......