Saturday, February 18, 2012

Crossing the Paths of Interesting People

An expected, but always surprising, fringe benefit of travel in Africa is running across non-Africans who are here on some kind of adventure, always interesting people. Again, that's happened here at the MAF hostel. Two couples, one Dutch, the other Welsh, are here with us, sharing our common kitchen and living room. The Dutch couple, Evert and Jeneke, are stopping over on an across-Africa car trip--not east-west but south-north, starting in Cape Town several months ago. Their stories are, of course, wonderful, but most stimulating is just to see and be with this adventurous couple, in retirement years, being totally absorbed in the life of the whole continent with verve and humor that's infectious. They'll be here for a week, so we'll have many shared moments. Oh, and by the way, this is their second trip across Africa, the first a few years ago from north to south, and in the same Toyota Land Cruiser with now nearly 300,000 miles clocked on its odometer.

The other couple, John and Miar, are here for a weekend holiday in Dodoma, coming from their home a few hundred km west where John is near completion of a two-year program to establish a school of nursing at an Anglican hospital. John has been in nursing education for a long time, now giving Africans the benefit of that expertise. From these years in TZ, they have abundant knowledge of medical conditions, and tend to be more positive in their analysis that I've often heard. It's been rewarding to talk about our young friend here, whom I met again yesterday, showing worrying effects of his HIV+ condition now, and getting suggestions for treatment possibilities. All of this in a context of deep Christian commitment, which gives our discussion a broader, deeper, long-range, and satisfying perspective.

How much I value these unexpected relationships, so richly productive, even if brief.

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