Reservations

Last days of vacation on different African island

“We had a reservation.” We told the sleepy hotel clerk.  In Western minds this is like a promise. It should provide security and assurance. We don’t have to worry, “We have a reservation.” But “reservations” can have a different meaning. If someone “has reservations,” it is the opposite of security and assurance. It is a feeling of misgiving and apprehension.

We had tried to make reservations at two different island hotels for that night. We were arriving after midnight from an international flight and leaving the next morning for our domestic flight back to Clove Island. We didn’t want to bother our friends, nor go all the way into the capital. It was the precise situation where having the assurance of a reservation was needed. But the first hotel refused to make a reservation two weeks ahead of time and insisted that we call back only a day or two in advance. When we contacted them a day or two ahead of time—they had no available rooms. The second hotel was contacted just over a day ahead of time.  They too disliked agreeing to a reservation, but finally they said they would reserve a room for us. Yet there we were in the parking lot at 3am with the hotel clerk telling us that all the rooms were full.

Hike with family

Our kids were beyond tired and pathetically lied down on the ground with tired, tearful eyes, using their backpacks as pillows. By the time we had called and awoken our friend, our kids were asleep. As our family of five squished back into the too-small-taxi with all our bags, we sighed. The three children instantly fell asleep, giving us a moment to reflect on the situation and the cultural conundrum it presented. Our conclusion: Islanders have reservations about reservations.

Islanders are not comfortable in speaking in a fixed way about the future. This is partially a religious conviction. They always mark a phrase talking about the future with the phrase “If God wills”. This gives any future statement a note of uncertainty because only God know for sure what will happen.

The other reason that islanders aren’t comfortable about fixing the future is that island life is very unpredictable and much of the infrastructure is unreliable.  Things like government issues shutting down an airline, social unrest closing roads, gas shortages, water shortages, electricity outages and more are all crises that seem to pop up with little warning. So from an island perspective, so many things can happen, you simply shouldn’t hold any plans too tightly.   For example, one of the inter-island airlines is completely locally run and it is very forgiving with changing your ticket. There are no fees or penalties to change the flight time or day! But that looseness goes both ways—you have to accept that they may change their plans too, even if that means canceling your flight or changing it from an afternoon flight to a morning flight with almost no notice.

A hilltop home

So back to our hotel reservations. The hotel worker said that he saw our reservation listed at the front desk earlier but that he didn’t remember there being any note about us arriving in the middle of the night. He guessed that whoever was working assumed we weren’t coming and gave our rooms away. From an island perspective, a living person in front of them with money for a room is a much better option than a name written on a paper. And in some ways we begrudgingly understand. The underdeveloped infrastructure of the islands means that it is still almost entirely cash-based. Without the use of credit cards, we are making reservations with no monetary assurance for the hotels. If we don’t show up, they have no way of charging us a fee. So we understand the allure of a sure customer versus a potential customer.

So while it wasn’t a huge comfort at 3am, we understand where islanders’ reservations about reservations come from. Maybe in the future we’ll try again and try new ways of reassuring them when we make a reservation, for now I think we’ll avoid those midnight flights!

PRAYERS ANSWERED
Despite a rough night, we have arrived safely home and we are very happy to be home.  It sounds like our various family members are safely making their way home.  We are extremely thankful for the good times we were able to have with family and for everyone’s safe journeys.  Tom had some tummy issues this week and he is very happy to be feeling better.  

PRAYERS REQUESTED
Pray for travelers and visitors.  Throughout the rest of the month we have both people traveling and visiting, including organization reps, a former worker here and our teammate coming back. Pray that travels would go smoothly and that visits would be blessed and that much light could shine even when the situations are complicated or difficult.  Please continue to lift up our island brothers and sisters, that they would gather together regularly, trust one another, honor each other and care for each other as a family should. Pray for us as we jump back into island life.  We’ve had lots of travel and Megan’s back has done well, but we know from experience that this type of travel can weaken her back and lead to pain, so pray that her back would strengthen back quickly and that she wouldn’t have any pain in coming weeks. The translation project is supposed to have a few days of check meetings soon with a consultant, pray that the logistics and checking time go smoothly.