Meeting friends

The fun began while we were still in the car, on the way to the airport. Thanks to the miracle of text messaging, signals were sent from two separate vehicles to alert travel companions that we had begun our journey.

A second volly of messages signaled an unexpected stop along the way, to take on other passengers. In the end, this was fortuitous since the couple who last boarded the shuttle turned out to be originally from Northern India - the very location where our travels will take us in the coming day(s).

Stories of warm Northern Indian welcomes mingle with and easy flow of cameraderie and friendship which exhudes from our new-found companions. They are more than willing to share their advice, wisdom and well wishes with the pilgrims who are setting out on this journey.

Having been introduced to the mining ventilation specialist and his wife, our travel companions were finally introduced to the priest (or as they prefer to refer to me, as the preacher). Thanks to a delay in the departure of our first leg of travel, we turned out to have ample opportunities to share wisdom with these companions. In fact, as the first leg of the flight came to an end and we parted ways, they urged my friends to "take care of the preacher, and try not to fall asleep during his teachings". Falling asleep has never occurred while I have the microphone (at least not to my knowledge); besides, I keep my words of wisdom to a minimum so as not to bore the unfortunate listener, in hopes of enticing the odd passerby to thirst for more.