A totally unexpected hurdle

One must be prepared for everything

Good news late on Thursday evening: until now Ruth Voigt and her friends have organised 26 talks in the next three week; and the number continues to rise.  My Covid-test is negative and I fall asleep in our mission’s guesthouse in Lima with a feeling that everything is okay.

The taxi-driver arrives on time and drives me to the airport.  Needing only just under an hour for the journey is a good time bearing in mind that it is during the morning.  I get out and want to open the boot.

One, two, then three crunching sounds and the boot-door remains as shut as the door to the safe of a central bank.

The driver starts getting nervous and typing madly in his mobile.  I notice immediately that this is not the first time that he encounters this problem.  Then he wants to remove the rear row of seats in order to get at my three suitcases that are buried in the depths of the vehicle.  But he does not have the correct screwdriver.  And then my driver, this faithful soul is gone, without a trace.  I now start to feel extremely uncomfortable.

Before long the police join me: “My three suitcases are in the back and my driver has disappeared!”  Even for an experienced guardian of the law such a statement is new.  10 minutes later the assumed owner of the taxi appears back on the scene.  With a screwdriver in hand feelings of joy well up in me: this really is a sign of true hope.  Together we manage to remove the row of seats.  But the gas-tank behind prevents us accessing the valuable contents of the boot.

To cut a long story short: after 40 minutes a multitude of taxi-drivers and policemen successfully achieve the unachievable.  The boot-door opens and my three suitcases appear.  They are my ticket to Brazil.  My hands clasp them firmly and all I want to do is to leave the scene.

Louis Fischer sends me a picture from Sao Paulo.  The Portuguese versions of the books have arrived on time.  Absolutely brilliant.  Now all I have to do is board the plane and disembark after five hours.  Travelling can be so easy.

A battle lasting 40 minutes: how on earth does one access the boot? On the other side the taxi-driver is trying his best.
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