Stuck in Washington

We ate our meals on the church stage

My room was the second from the end

I am on my way home from a business trip in South Africa, and my last flight from Washington to Denver was cancelled.  Every other flight today was overbooked and had a standby list, so I opted to get a room at the airport Marriott and fly home tomorrow morning at 6 (I hope).  After 20 hours of travel from Johannesburg I was really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight - but it wasn't meant to be.  When I called home to tell Daphne about the change in plans, there was a long pause on the other end.  I could tell that she was debating whether or not to tell me something, and she finally spilled the beans:  my eldest daughter had a single car accident yesterday evening, which means we're down to a single vehicle until further notice.  Karine's OK, and I'm grateful for that; it could have been much worse.  Still, don't you wish your kids could learn these hard lessons without it costing us anything as parents?  I guess that was part of the deal we signed up for when we had children.

I was in Johannesburg under the auspices of my company - Storm Guides International.  A small mission agency based in Namibia asked me to come train their country directors in crisis management principles.  It's was a good week - although the nights were freezing cold.  South Africa - being in the Southern Hemisphere - is in the middle of their winter. Since Joburg is a mile high just like Denver, the temperatures drop dramatically at night.  All the buildings at the Baptist conference center where we met are built of concrete blocks without any insulation.  I used four blankets to stay warm, and as long as I was snuggled in my "cocoon" I was fine.  There was only one problem:  the bathrooms were four buildings away.  I was tempted to keep an empty bottle in the room at night just for that purpose... but ended up making the long walk anyway.  I did learn after the first day that I should take my showers at night when the bathrooms were empty and the water was hot. 

I think it was an eye-opening week for the participants, none of whom has ever had any training in crisis management.  This particular mission group had considered investing in the services of a Dutch risk management group, but just the retainer alone would have been $30K a year.  I may not be able to boast of contacts within the Mossad or FBI, but I do bring 28 years of living overseas to the table.  The wife of the Director said to me yesterday, "You're different."  When I asked her what she meant, she said that I came and just seemed to "fit in", which I guess was not her expectation.  I can only say that I know what it's like to be a missionary, and I've lived through and managed a lot of difficult crises.   Hopefully that counts for something.  Besides - to hire me costs them a fraction of what they would have paid to the Dutch group.  


The day before I left, Daphne's Aunt told me that three of their friends were shot in an attempted car-jacking, at 7 in the evening on a busy residential street.  They had just arrived for an evening cook-out at a friend's home when four armed men pulled up behind their parked car and jumped out brandishing pistols.  They demanded all their jewelry, wallets etc while holding guns to their heads. When they did not comply fast enough, the thieves shot three of them - one in the leg, another in the hand, and the third narrowly escaping death when she turned her head to take off her earrings and the bullet grazed her scalp.  It was ironic because in the training we had just been discussing the rise of violent crime in African countries ( South Africa being among the worst), and this incident was a case-in-point.  Thank God all three survived, although the emotional scars will take much longer to heal.  


Well, time to get some dinner and an early night's sleep.