A Different Sort of Sunday

It had been a week of bliss. I guess I hadn’t fully adjusted to the culture here. My mistake. This morning I set off for a church that is right around the corner. When I go there I realized that there was no one there (I found out later that this church meets in the afternoon). So I decided to go to Gospel Light Church. It’s on the far side of Zeway, maybe a 45 minute walk from my house. I flagged down a gari (a horse carriage). He set off in the wrong direction and I told him where we needed to go. We arrived at the church and I gave him 10 birr and asked for my change knowing that a horse ride costs only 1 birr. Well he pocketed the money and said that he didn’t have any change. I didn’t budge from the cart and said that he had told that he had had change and that he lied. So he pulled out a birr and said that was all the change that he had. I told him I didn’t believe him and that he was a bad man. Soon a lot of people surrounded us. To a few people asked me what was happening and I told him that I gave the man money and he refused to give me change. People started yelling at him to give me my money, so he pulled out 2 more birr. I refused to take it and I refused to get out of the gari. Finally a lady came up and said that she was going to call the police gave him the money, demanded mine back, and I got out of the cart. The problem was taken care of. My blood was boiling and it was embarrassing.

I ended up sitting with the woman through church, she translated bits for me, then had me over to her house for lunch. Kind of crazy, but I made a new friend through the morning’s catastrophe. The day ended up being pleasant, between staying a while at my new friend’s house as well as some of my neighbors’ places. Another day of endless coffee to go around.

*** Today after our morning devotions, one of my co-workers came up to me and asked how yesterday was. She started laughing… and I knew exactly what she was talking about. One of her friends had told her about the altercation with the gari driver. I guess a story like that with one of the only foreigners around gets around.