Awkward moments

• Phil and Gabe are leaving the Embassy Suites in D.C. with a cart stacked with a pile of suitcases for the orphanage. Josie is back in the hotel room finalizing her primping for the day. As we get on the elevator a woman with an English accent kindly inquires about our monstrous stack of suitcases. Gabe replies that “we” are adopting from the Congo and that the suitcases are full of goods for the orphanage. Her reply was a polite “Ohhh” as she looked down to the floor. We didn’t quite understand her lack of interest at the moment. Phil realized about 10 minutes later how this whole scene must have come across.

• The 3 of us are waiting in line to exit Ethiopia and strike up a conversation with the 2 African gentleman behind us. They were very different looking men from two distant parts of Africa. We were talking about their jobs and the various attributes of their countries and the facial features of the people from the various parts, when Jocelyn asked them about African women’s hair differences. She asked the two rugged looking men if they knew why or how some women have straight long hair while others have the tight curly hair. Both men stared at her with completely straight faces and made zero verbal reply. There was a long silence.