surprise

Reason #134—Stayed out later than expected at an evening meeting, got home at 9, only to find out that Mr. had gotten worried about my tardiness to the extent that he had gone out looking for me. Guess I should have called him to let him know what was up. Poor guy! I felt SO bad.

Yesterday I had a few errands to run, on my way to a (different) meeting. I walked a bit until I saw two motorbike taxis sitting side-by-side. One hailed me, and I waved my hand to indicate I needed his services. He drove over to me, and I explained where I needed to go. Again, this is a place that I go to often, and I know the going rate.

I mentally added a little extra for the two stops I needed to make on the way, but was not prepared for his opening "bid", which was more than triple the amount I was planning for. I offered him a very low counter-bid, knowing that if he had started so high I would have to work very hard to get him down to a fair price. He said no, lowered his initial price by a tiny bit, and so I raised my offer just a smidge.

To my surprise, he basically said, “I won't take you for that price, but that guy will,” indicating the other moto taxi driver. He waved him over and drove away. I told the second guy where I wanted to go and quoted the last price I had offered the previous driver, and he gladly accepted.

I have no idea why the second guy would work more cheaply than the other, or what the first guy was holding out for. Just one of the many things about living in this place that bewilders me. And one of the many things I don't need to struggle to figure out, because I will not be here much longer.

Two days ago, as he was preparing lessons for his last week of teaching at a Bible school in town, Mr. looked at me and said, “This is conceivably the last thing I'll ever translate into this language.” It felt surprising, but as I thought about it I saw that he was probably right. “How does that make you feel?” I asked. “Weird,” he said. Then a pause. Then, with a nod of the head and a slow smile, he added, “Good.”

It's so hard to know what lies ahead. May we have wisdom as we set out on this “road less traveled.”