So here’s where we left off. See if you can catch up:
Victor and I in the city. A group of strangers in trouble. TJ goes to translate and help them out. Victor changing clothes with random street people. TJ and Victor bring the strangers back to the orphanage to give them a hand. Now you’re up to speed.
So, when we got back to the orphanage, I went around getting names and introductions from people. The funny thing was that they were doing the same thing among themselves. I did a little digging. and it turns out that they all happened to be on the same lonely bus going to Nampula in the morning and had another common destination in the afternoon and so they decided to hitch-hike/hire random people to drive them 1000km into the middle of nowhere. Nearest I could gather they were traveling in two groups (maybe three) and were from England, Holland, and possible Norway also. Half of them went back into the city with Victor to figure out their transportation while the other half stayed at the orphanage and rested up.
Victor got back about 2 hours later and their group decided that the best way for them to travel was to take the bus. The problem was the bus didn’t leave for two days. Victor was busy and decided to go back wandering into the streets righting wrongs and trading for people’s obscene clothing while I and Visado (a staffer here) took them in the pickup back into town to buy their bus tickets and get lodging. We bought their bus tickets no problem (it still took 30 minutes because the service was soooooo sloooow) and then I decided that we’d get them set for lodging.
Now, in order to explain why I drove these strangers all over the city for two hours looking for an empty hotel room, I need to stop and explain a little something about the culture here. People here will go so far out of their way to help you its almost funny. A couple of days before this Janeti (another adult staff) and I were in town to do errands. We were coming out of the bank when she saw some fabric that caught her eye. When we asked on the price, she thought it was a little high. Then, some random dude says “I know where you can get it cheaper, and its just a couple of blocks over over here.” So he climbs in the car with us, we make it a couple of blocks over, and he takes us to where they were selling it for cheaper. After that we brought him back to where we found him, thanked him, and he left. That’s absolutely the everyday kind of help that (most) people will give you totally unsolicited.
So, in my attempt to embrace the culture, I took the delegation from England/Holland/possibly Norway all over the city as we tried at least four motels that were all either full or out of their price range. Then, as they are looking through their guide books, one of the gals suggests that we go to a place called the “Hotel Mosqueda”. Visado (remember him) starts flipping out. He starts taking way too fast for me to understand and starts pointing and yelling like something is really wrong. One of the tourists asked why he keeps saying “No, no, no, no, no, no, no!”. It turns out that the gal had a little trouble pronouncing the name of the hotel. While she had been trying to ask about the Meresqueta Hotel, what she had said was Mesquita. For those of you not current on your Portuguese, she was asking Visado if they could stay at a Mosque.
Once that got cleared up, it took a little time but we finally found a place for them to stay. After, I gave them my phone number and directions on how to get back to the orphanage to come visit the next day. Well, sure enough the next day about 3pm here the six of them come wandering in with two brand new soccer balls for the kids and looking to get a game in. They were pretty good I’ll give that to them, but we’ve got a pretty good goalie on our side.
I want you to know that about 10 meters past the left side of the photo is midfield. My team does not believe in playing defense, leaving yours truly to guard those two sticks behind me that are the goal.
That we kicked their butts (okay, we split the teams because us vs. them was just way too unfair) the kids put on a concert for them and I got to talking with them. Inevitably they asked the question of just why the heck I would stop for them and take over half of my day to help them out. It was a great chance for me to explain what we did was exactly was Jesus does. That day we rescued them from the problem they had and helped them far above anything they could have expected.
And that’s the story when we did our good deed for the day.
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