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Can you imagine losing two children at one of the busiest place on earth in the summer? I did. I lost two children at Disney World, Florida once. Here is one of my travelling stories.

Years ago, I pioneered the first study group for King Car Education Foundation to visit Jacksonville, Florida. That was their first time to organize a large group of people to stay at a high school overseas. I volunteered to lead the group as an escort teacher because at that time I was hosting a radio program called Co Co and Po Po Time for King Car. It made perfect sense for King Car to send us as the escort teachers to oversee the ESL program provided by the private high school in Jacksonville, Florida.

Most of the group members were children but we also had quite a lot of parents who came along with us. The private school provided the parents some activities during class time. I can no longer remember the exact number of people we took with us but I think the total number was about 52 people, including adults and children. It was not easy to please everybody in the group, I could say. The worst part was to take care of the group of children who came alone without their parents for three weeks.

In the group, there were two cute brother and sister who were particular hyper throughout the stay in Jacksonville. For every step of the program, I literally had to repeat my instructions many times to them to ensure that they would follow closely. Ever since we first met, I had realized that it would be a tough journey with both of them. Anyway, after three weeks of staying in the private school, we finally ended the program and started a week long journey of visiting different attractions before heading back home. One of the stops was the Disney World, Orlando in Florida. Everyone was excited about the visit to the Disney World where thousands of tourists from all over the world would visit each day.

When our bus arrived at the parking lot, I warned everybody about the busy park. I repeated over and over again about our meeting place at the gate. I told them that the bus would be park at the lot number 123 which would be the place to board the bus at 9:00 in the evening. I told all parents to be careful of holding on to their children since all the children were not fluent English speakers. I told all the children who were without parent escorts to follow their assigned leaders closely. Most importantly, I showed everybody where Lost and Found Centre was when we entered the park. After explaining all the safety precautions, the parents started to head out with their groups. I, along with the leader and the tour guide, also divided up the children without parents and then headed out.

At Disney World, they had scheduled parades rotating throughout each day on the main street. A short while after the morning Disney Parade, the leader and a parent came to tell me that those two brother and sister went missing. Those kids probably tried to find a spot to see the parade and decided to leave their small group. After the parade, everyone started to move and now they were missing! Those two brats!

There were millions of people walking around in the Disney World. Where on earth were we supposed to start looking for those two small children who could not speak English? I went to Lost and Found to report of the missing children right away and of course those two kids were not there at the gate! We walked along the main street following the route of the parade and weaving in and out of the souvenir stores. There were no brother and sister to be found!

I don’t know if anyone of you could relate to the mixed emotions I had then, the frustration, nervousness and heaviness on my mind at the time, which was beyond any words that I could describe. I could have had a heat-attack right then and there. Even till this day, I still get really paranoid whenever I take children on a field trip.

*** Since I am not in prison at the time of writing this article and I had never been in one, you probably can guess the result must be a happy ending. ***

We looked everywhere for more than an hour. The security at Disney was notified and out helping us. The tour leader from King Car was almost in tears because we didn’t really know what else to do. Finally, I thought of the lecture I gave them before we stepped off the bus in the morning. I did tell them the parking lot number. If those two kids were smart enough, maybe they would have gone back to the bus to wait there. Unfortunately, the bus would only return at 9:00 in the evening.

I thought it would be a long shot, but I should still go back to check the parking lot. Anyway, I left the Magic Kingdom alone and walked across the huge parking lot to search for them. Half way through the parking lot, I could sort of identify two little figures standing at the parking lot number 123, waving at me and jumping up and down. Those two little brats were smart enough to wait at the empty lot where the bus used to park. They at least remembered my words.

I was just happy to find them. Can you imagine of losing two kids and finally finding them back at the busiest spot on earth in the summer time? Well, it happened to me once and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy!

Post Note: Those two kids would be grown up by now. If they were reading this article, I would like them to know that millions of my brain cells died that day due to their naughty behaviour. I am still waiting for an apology. (Dream on, I know.)