Gotta share this story ...

At 4:30 I get a call from Sara on her way home from work. “Joan(Jo-ann) called and said that her ride to go pick up Savita from the airport fell through and they needed help.”

Joan and Savita are both Cross-Country runners for Harding from Eldoret, Kenya. Sara has established a great friendship with them over the years and I’ve gotten to know them through her. Earlier in the Day I had seen Joan with an Kenyan friend named Matthew. He is transfering to Harding from a college in Austin, TX. On with the story…

After Sara delivered the news, I said “Great lets do it, I haven’t had a good Drive in a while!” Our house is about 100 yards from my office, so the commute is not very thrilling. Plus I love to drive, so I knew a quick trip to the airport in Little Rock would be pleasant.

Sara told me that Savita’s flight comes in at 6PM and that we’d pick Joan up at her apartment at 5. I by-passed eating dinner because I wasn’t so hungry and I figured Savita would want to grab something after her flight from Amsterdam. So at 5:15 we left our house to get Joan right on time, African time that is. We pulled up and Sara went to knock on Joan’s door. When they began walking back to the car, I noticed Matthew was walking with them. “They said they’d squeeze in when we pick up Savita” Sara said. I grined and shook my head thinking, of course the only way to travel is shoulder-to-shoulder in Africa! So in our small 4-door sedan we took a turn out of the apartments to go to Little Rock. After a turning down a block to go South, Joan speaks up,
“Where are we going?”
“To the Airport.” Sara said.
“In Memphis?” Joan replied.
“No, are we supposed to go to Memphis?” Sara answered.
“Yes, Savita is flying into Memphis.” Joan said

Two blocks from their apartment I slammed the brakes and said, “Oh I’m sorry, thats too far for me to drive.” And I let them out.

No, No, No. I couldn’t do that.

I thought to myself, well we’ve already committed to this one, and I do like to drive so, “Well I suppose we are going to Memphis then!”

Sara and I just looked at each other thinking, “Oh well, I guess we’re going to Memphis.” I thought more about having the three of them in the back with luggage in the trunk for a two hour drive home. This could only be more African if I could find a roof rack for the top.

After a half hour or so, the car was truly smelling like Africa, or maybe its more accurate to say it was smelling like Africans. It’s God’s humor that I associate the smell of African’s with some of the most memorable times of my life, thus the smell was welcomed in an odd sort of way. As were driving along managing our way through conversation in broken English, I asked them, “Did you guys eat dinner yet?”
“Uhhh, Dinner? oh no, its too early for dinner, we’ll eat when we get back.”
“Isn’t that late?” I replied as my stomach started to feel empty
“No,” they kinda laughed, “I usually wont eat until 9 or sometimes 10” Matthew responded.
My stomach began to tighten as I looked at Sara thinking, I can’t wait til then!
We quized them on this eating schedule. Sara asked
“When do you eat?”
Matthew responded “Breakfast at 9 or 10, then lunch at noon or so, tea and bread at 4, and then dinner at 9 or 10.”
So this is an everyday thing, I thought to myself.

Well the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We got Savita only 40 minutes after she had picked up her luggage. I was afraid the whole Africa experience would have intensified with the gift of a live animal to take back from Memphis with us, but that never happened. We stopped at Captain D’s on the way home and I got some fries to hold me over till we got back to the house. The three stooges in the back chttered in Calingen almost the entire way home as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. It made us smile to hear the sweet sounds of Africa in our own back seat.

So that’s my story on how Africans are Africans no matter where they are. Chris and Jill, we can’t wait till you get your taste of Africa.