Do Angels Smoke Pipes?
Some years ago Pauline and I were on a visit to
Nigeria. I have a rule: don’t carry too
much cash. We had £30.00 between
us. We had flown into Lagos from Accra,
Ghana. We presented ourselves at
passport control and one of the officers said, “I need to see the £200.00 that
you will change into Naira as you enter the country.” I explained that between us we only had
£30.00, but I had a credit card.
This made no difference whatsoever, he insisted that I was
lying and demanded to see the £200.00 or, he said, “We will return you to where
you came from.” What could I do? The answer to this question was made for me
by the officer; he lifted his rifle, stuck it in my ribs, and marched me and
Pauline down the long corridor back to the aeroplane on which we had
arrived. It had taken a long time to
queue to get to passport control and our incoming plane had already
departed. The soldier then decided that
I would have to go to prison and, he said, “Your wife will go to the women’s
prison.” Neither Pauline or I were
impressed with this idea so I said, “can I try something?” He looked at me suspiciously, pushed the gun a
little harder into my ribs, and growled “what are you going to try?” “Well,” I said, “I thought I might ask
someone to give me some money.” He
pulled the gun out of my ribs and slung it up onto his shoulder, looked at me
steely eyed and said, “are you mad?”
“Not really,” I replied, “but anything is better than going
to prison, so will you let me try?” “Who
will you ask?” he said. I looked around
for a friendly face in the myriads of people waiting to fly out, which is what
Pauline wanted to do right there and then.
I spotted a man leaning against a wall smoking a pipe, I said to my gun
totting guard, “him over there.” He
shrugged and said, “this should be fun, I am coming with you.” Our party of three made their way over to the
pipe smoker. I opened the conversation,
“excuse me do you speak English?” The man
replied, “Just a little.” I explained
that the gun wielding soldier was inclined to put me in prison as I did not
have the required £200.00 to change into Naira, could he help. Much to my guard’s amazement the man said, “of
course, I will go to the bank outside and get it for you.” A few moments later he was back with £200.00
Stirling. “There you are,” he said. I thanked him profusely and said, “I need to
pay you back, when I get back to the UK where should I send it?” He laughed and at my insistence wrote
something on a piece of paper which I carefully stowed in my wallet. We said our farewells and my now, somewhat
quieter, guard escorted us back to passport control.
At the counter he announced, “They have the £200.00!” “Oh they’ve found it have they!” The man in
the booth responded. “No,” the guard
said, “I have just seen the most amazing thing; a man gave them the
money”. I chipped in, “Well I did pray
to God before I spoke to him.” A hush
descended, they stamped our passports, and we were waved through.
There is more to this story which maybe I will save to my
next blog, however, while in Nigeria, I took many the names, addresses and business
cards of many people, all of which I tucked into the same place that I had put
pipe-smoking-man’s piece of paper. My
intention was to write to everyone on my return to the UK including writing to
and repaying Mr Pipe-smoker. On my return
to the UK every piece of paper was still safely stowed, and I started and
succeeded in writing to every person, all except Mr Pipe-smoker. His piece of paper was missing, and even
though I turned out my wallet and luggage, it was nowhere to be found. All the other address details were
there.
I wanted to pay back my friend, but as his details had
disappeared I was not able to do this. Who
was he, where is he, why he gave me the money I have no idea. Perhaps if he reads this, he will let me
know. My thoughts about it, perhaps,
maybe, it was no ordinary man. How
extraordinary that he gave me £200.00 very quickly, very easily, without any
argument, debate, and with very little forethought. At the time, because I was so stressed, I did
not think these elements through. If angels
smoke pipes I want to say thank you to God for sending that particular
pipe-smoker at the perfect moment.
Adrian Hawkes
Blogspot.com
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