6-11-14

Spirit Week, day 3 - Twin Day.  Mac went as a triplet with two friends.  They wore black basketball shorts and blue sports jerseys.  There's the spirit.

Today I went out with a younger friend for a driving lesson in her husband's manual transmission car which was bought pre-marriage and is their only car.  She learned how to drive stick shift in a pickup truck, but their family car is a sleek, fairly NEW, non-clunky car that terrified her.  This fear has prohibited her from driving in VA since she moved here last fall.

I felt like my "coaching" her (which was really just offering encouragement because she knew what she was doing and just needed a calm presence next to her) was bringing around full-circle the same kindness shown to me by an older woman in Mozambique some 12 years ago.

When we moved there, Jimmy wanted a safari-worthy vehicle, so we bought a used Land Rover, who we named Roxie.  Roxie was perfect in every way, except that she was manual transmission and after having tried to drive stick shift once in a college, I had declared myself an automatic girl only.  Before we made our final decision in the car lot in South Africa, I told Jimmy he would have to drive for two years straight if we got Roxie.

He agreed and he drove exclusively for the first 5 months.

Until he broke his foot and couldn't drive a manual.

He gave me a driving lesson in our neighborhood in Maputo.  There are probably still Mozambicans who laugh over the story of the lady who stayed in first gear because she ground the gears every time she tried to change to second.  At least I hope they're laughing and aren't traumatized by the honking to get out of my way because I didn't know how to stop.

Jimmy realized he'd be forced to drive, even with the broken foot.

Except that his father died very unexpectedly and he left the country within hours to return home for a couple weeks for the funeral and medical appointments for his foot.

We had to grocery shop in a whole different country at that time, so I was stuck.  I either would starve or I had to drive Roxie to South Africa.

I asked around and the office management specialist for the front office said she'd go with me to South Africa, despite my proclamation that I would probably stall out multiple times, I would definitely cry multiple times, and she would probably have to take over the driving.  She assured me that she'd taught all of her kids how to drive and that we would be fine.

And we were!  Yes, I stalled out, and I'm sure I cried, but she didn't have to take over at all. AND I didn't wreck the car.

I loved paying her kindness forward today.