Walking in Spirit

"We walk in spirit." Isn't that a great phrase? It's a Nigerian phrase that has come to have meaning in my life recently. Did you ever do something only to find that someone else has done the exact thing needed to complete or compliment what you are doing? Coincidence, right? Not really, you "Walk in Spirit" with that person. It has happened to me many times in the past four months. I have needed to arrange a vehicle or a ticket or a meeting or, well, any number of things and there are a few FSN's (that's foreign service national to you - it means they are working at the US embassy but are citizens of the country the embassy is located in) here who always seem to have what I need. And that is a miracle. The overall incompetence here is unbelievable - a subject for another day, another blog. To walk into an office and ask for something and have the person standing there with it in their hands is almost spiritual. And it has happened to me so often that these people now tell everyone that we "walk in spirit." To them, this is rare and valuable and I have to admit that I do feel connected to people whose names I cannot pronounce. Which isn't as bad as it sounds; they can't pronounce my name either. "My sister" or "my brother" is working just fine for us!

There are many things that living in a third world country can do to a person. Cynicism, pessimism, arrogance, and guilt are the most common 'side effects' but to find beauty, to learn to walk in spirit with one from an alien culture is not so common. Now I look around wondering whom else I walk in spirit with. Try it. Life suddenly becomes much more pleasant.