5 am and I'm laying in the hostel bed thinking about the variety of experiences that I have had so far. I'm not sure that I could make the claim that this has changed me, but it definitely is reminding me of parts of myself that I have left behind, either in my mind or in my spirit. It's as if I'm meetings an old friend to do something new.
My major point of growth for the day was helping our driver find his way to the Eastgate mall, ALA, and back. Eastgate was merely a stop to exchange money. This was our driver's first day driving foreigners, specifically white foreigners. He is used to driving groups from Soweto. He missed a turn and you could tell that he was so nervous. So I got up and moved to the front seat next to him, at that moment we became a time. His nervousness made him utterly lost in terms of directional capability, but he remained a safe driver. I became the navigator. We had an unspoken bond, and no one in the back knew quite how bad it was, but although a bit stressful for me I was thankful for it. I say stressful because I didn't have a map, just vague directions and a vague sense of direction in a city and country that I have only been in for one day and where they drive in the opposite side of the road. The experienced stretched me, I made wrong choices of guidance but we fixed those choices together, secretly, some not so secretly. Our vulnerability created warmth and humor. And in the end, we got where we needed to go and I got to interact with a couple people on the street, I was even asked to be someone's Valentine. And offered anything I want in the world. :)
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