Upon arrival in Honduras…

MEH teams are met at the airport by someone from the MEH staff or your local hosts. It is almost always possible for local staff to get permission to meet the team in the customs area (for teams of 10 or more people). If not, they will be waiting outside the terminal building with an identifying sign.

Before you land. During the flight to Honduras, each person will be handed two forms to fill out: one for immigration, and one for customs. Each person (or family) should fill these out, including the address and phone number of Manos Extendidas Honduras office:

Manos Extendidas
Apdo. Postal 20397
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
391-0815

 

Immigration:

After disembarking and entering the airport terminal, you’ll come first to the line for the immigration desks. Stand in an appropriate line (the line for those who aren’t Honduran citizens or diplomats). Each team member should be ready with passports and their immigration paper they filled out on the plane. Tell the immigration official where you are from, where you are going, and what you will be doing. Everyone can stow their passport securely away after passing through immigration.

 

Claim your luggage:

This is the point at which teams are usually met by a MEH staff person to help guide you through customs (if the person received permission to enter the customs area).

· The team should pile all carry-on luggage in one spot, with 2 team members watching it.

· The rest of the team should help retrieve the team’s checked luggage from the conveyor belt and pile all checked luggage separate from the carry-on pile. Keep carry-on luggage and checked luggage separate at this point. This makes it easier to count and re-count the number of checked luggage that arrived.

· One person should collect from each team member the other paper filled out on the plane, the customs paper, from each person, so they have a stack of everyone’s papers ready for the customs official. This person can be one of the carry-on luggage watchers.

· One person should at some point collect all claim checks (the white tickets with zebra-stripes the airline gives when you checked in), and have them ready to show the customs official in Honduras. All luggage claim tickets need to be in one person's hand to pass through Honduran customs. Claim check tickets can be collected earlier in the US, after the team checks in with the airline.

· Another team member should count (and re-count) the number of checked bags that arrive. The number of bags should match the number of white claim check tickets.

 

Customs:

For mission teams, a customs official is willing to come to the luggage pile instead of bringing the pile to the customs desk. This allows teams to bypass the usual customs process and avoid inspection most of the time. After your luggage is checked against the claim checks, and after they receive the stack of customs papers, one for each team member or family, they will give permission to leave the building.

 

Leaving the airport building:
In the Tegucigalpa Airport

Use the blue-shirted porters to carry the luggage. Just ask one blue shirt to help you and he will then find others to help him, if he needs it.

Designate two team members to stick with the luggage as it is hauled, one to go with the first load and the other to walk with the last load. Exit through the glass doors and head to the left. That is where your team will be met by your MEH hosts, if they haven’t been permitted inside. The porters and team will be directed to the vehicle(s) to be used.

Your team should be ready to pay the tip to the lead porter. The going rate is about $.75 per bag (about L.15 per bag). The team can pay the tip in dollars or in lempira. Wait until all the bags are loaded onto vehicles before you pay. Pay the entire tip to the lead porter, and he will distribute the money to the other porters who helped him.

 

Before you leave the airport:

· Change U.S. dollars into Honduran lempira.

The airport is a good place to change dollars into lempira before you leave for the site. There are money-changers outside the terminal after you exit the building. The rate the airport money-changers charge is usually the same or better than the Honduran bank rate. Plan on changing your money for any sight-seeing here at the airport also. Be prepared to double-check the money-changer's calculations--bring your own calculator or conversion sheet, or insist on using the money-changer's calculator. An MEH staff person can facilitate this. (Note: getting to a bank is difficult at some sites, and taking the team to a bank is an extra errand for the local hosts.)

Updated Feb. 2005