David And Michelle

This actually happened several weeks ago and I have meant to share ever since then. I was taking one of our dorm girls to her orthodontist appointment one Thursday afternoon when I got myself all turned around and ended up going the wrong way on a one-way street right in front of a government building. The cars coming at me quickly signaled me with their lights as did the various parking attendants on the road. I pulled the little Peugeot into the parking lot of the government building and turned around. As I was leaving the parking lot a police officer who was working at the government building flagged me down and asked me what I was doing and just generally gave me a hard time for not acknowledging the "Wrong Way" sign at the corner. This is where the "short sight of the fool" part comes in. I somehow decided that it just made a lot of since to start arguing, even to the point of raising my voice, with this police officer. I cannot explain what I was thinking (primarily because I was not thinking) but I continued down this path of ignorance for several minutes. Now this is not an uncommon thing for Senegalese to do. They will often argue with police officers, people whose car they just ran into, etc. You get the picture. I inadvertently did what was very culturally normal yet incredibly foolish. I left the situation with no problem and then the Jell-O legs hit me. "What did I just do? Was I just arguing with a policeman that I was somehow right in going the wrong way on a clearly marked one-way street?" My head shook as my legs jiggled.

Posted by David & Michelle Walker on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 at 1:53 PM | Permalink