Interesting Cultural Experience

(I wrote this on June 25...it was just waiting for a new blog to be posted on!)

I went this morning to pick up some of our friends who don’t have a car to bring them to our house for our group fellowship. They live in an area of town that’s mostly South Asians. It’s a neat area, but very crowded! Outside their house there is always a bed and a wardrobe. It appears as if someone just lives out front. Strange.

So, when I got there to pick up my friend, G and her 2 kids, I saw this old man standing out front of their building. He tried to hail a taxi that drove by, but it didn’t stop. So, G and the kiddos come out and cross the street to my car. As they are getting in the backseat, the old man is walking towards the car as well. He opens the front door - now, he’s very old... walking with a cane and very slow - and tells G to get in the back with her kiddos and he’s asking if he can get in the front. I’m perplexed at this point and I’m ask G, “What do you think he wants?” (Cause he’s speaking totally in Arabic, of course) She says “I think he wants a ride to the main road.” (Their apartment building is WAY off the main road.) I asked G, “What do you think?” She answers, “It’s ok.” SO... Old man labors up into the car, which is an SUV and is high up off the ground. And off we all go: me, G, her 2 girls, and this Old Man. Ha! He just assumed I’d give him a ride, no questions asked, and he also assumed that because he’s the man, he gets the front seat and G and her girls had to squish into the backseat (Lucy’s car seat is back there, too). 

I drove back to the main road. And at that main road I need to turn Left to go back to our house. He directs me, in Arabic that I actually understand, to turn right. I would’ve just dropped him there, but he’s really really old and walks with a limp... And I’m a nice person. :) He directs us to drop him at this mosque. Nice. I just pray that Jesus used my kindness - although I didn’t really have a choice or a chance to show him much kindness - to minister to his heart. 

The funny thing - well, the whole thing was pretty funny, I think - is that he is their landlord. Scroll back up to the top and remember where I said that there’s a bed and wardrobe out front of their building... it’s HIS! Their landlord, this old Mslm man, sleeps OUT in FRONT of the building that he owns! And mind you, it’s not a nice, breezy place we’re in these days... 

Experience Summary:

Random squatter landlord old man climbs up in the Pajero, rides with us for about 5 minutes, not understanding or speaking any English. We drop him at his mosque for his Friday prayers, en route to our own group fellowship... Strange. 

“It’s a crazy world, but I live here.”