An Afghan in the morning, an Afghan in the evening

Two good experiences

For four days I am staying in an old mill in Bokel, located strategically in the heart of Schleswig-Holstein, from where I can drive to the final five talks of my current Germany Tour.  During the day, sitting in the hotel, I answer emails or work on the website.

Saturday.  In the morning I go to a small bakery near the hotel and sitting in a corner, enjoying my cappuccino, I boot up my laptop.  Whilst working I eaves drop on the conversations happening behind me.  The bakery’s owner turns out to be an amazing sales person.  Friendly, interested in his clients and polite.  And I learn that he comes from Afghanistan.  Having spent several years in London he came to North Germany four years ago.  He speaks excellent German.  It is no surprise that his extensive assortment lures a constant stream of customers.

Over the past few days the listeners to my talks have bought almost 500 books.  Now I am stuck in the North and have run out of books!  On a Saturday an express-delivery is not much use.  Nothing works, it is simply bad timing.  But Karin Straßheim in our Germany office is looking for a solution.  She is on the phone to a “Mitfahrerzentrale“ (an agency that links people driving from A to B with those who want to hitch a ride from A to B) and then that afternoon on an motorway parking lot on the A5 she gives the messenger of her trust a box containing 40 books.  The car’s owner, an Afghan, promises to wait with the precious cargo for me in Hamburg.  After my presentation in Groß-Quern, near the Danish Border, I speed as quickly as I can to the metropolis located on the River Elbe.  At 10:30p.m. we meet face to face somewhere in the city of two million inhabitants.  The Afghan hands me the heavy box and asks, whether I wrote the book. “Yes,” I answer him, “we are missionary doctors in Peru!” – “And have you seen God?” he asks alluding to the book’s title. “To be honest it would be almost impossible to explain out story without God!”

In the hotel I come across an illuminated Globe.  Having met two Afghans today I need to brush up my knowledge of the country.  Unfortunately there is no version (yet) of the book “I have seen God” in the language of the Pashtoons and Tajiks! Perhaps it is only a matter of time.  Who knows when that will be! /KDJ

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