An African Correspondent (Part II)

[If you didn't read yesterday's post, please do so first.... otherwise this one won't make sense.  Trust me.]

So if you'll recall, when last we met I was on the horns of a dilemma. 

I realized belatedly that it is a very easy thing to act the anonymous big-shot and assure some faceless bureaucrat that they should go ahead and give a tourist visa to someone you've never met (or even spoken).  It is quite another matter to have that faceless bureaucrat turn the tables on you and ask if you are willing to sign a legal paper taking full responsibility for someone who could easily turn out to be very different from the polite, sincere correspondent you thought you knew.

One of my smart-alecky readers emailed me yesterday afternoon to ask if my African correspondent had initiated our email relationship with something that looked like this:

DEAR FRIEND,

I AM GIDEON ARAP MOI, THE SON OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF KENYA MR DANIEL ARAP MOI. I CAME TO KNOW YOU IN THE COURSE OF MY SEARCH FOR A RELIABLE AND GOD FEARING PARTNER, AND I DECIDED CONTACT YOU, BECAUSE I BELIEVE YOU ARE A REPUTABLE PERSON AND I FEEL YOU CAN HELP ME AND MY MOTHER OVER THIS CONFIDENTIAL MATTER.

I COUNT ON YOUR INTEGRITY AND HONESTY TO BE ABLE TO HANDLE THIS BUSINESS.  MY FATHER...

Hardee har har... very cute.  :-)

Let me state for the record that up to and including the point where I volunteered to contact the Israeli Consulate staff on his behalf, not once in almost three years did this young man ever ask me for anything other than my opinion on matters related to Israel and the middle east.

Of course, one could argue that a request for someone's opinion is perhaps the most potent flattery and could serve to ingratiate the asker for any number of future favors.  But I honestly didn't think that was his motive. 

And on another point, in answer to one of the commenters on yesterday's post who suggested that it was not possible that my African correspondent was coming to get a job washing dishes in Tel Aviv... even dishwashers in Tel Aviv make more than many middle managers in the third world.  Add to that the high rate of unemployment and the lack of opportunities in developing countries, and suddenly the food service industry in Israel doesn't look all that bad anymore.

But let's get back to my African Correspondent.

After staring at the very official-looking form for a few minutes I decided that the right decision (for me, anyway) was to sign it.  After emailing a scanned copy back to the Consulate in Nairobi, I called the consular officer and told her to go ahead and issue the tourist visa.

For the rest of the day my emotions see-sawed between feeling very good about myself for trusting this young man... and nagging self-doubt as I realized that I was powerless to keep this person from overstaying his visa (or even from engaging in criminal activity) if he was so inclined.

It turns out that any fears I might have had were completely unfounded.

My African correspondent arrived in Israel over a week ago and spent his first couple of days exploring Old Yaffo and Tel Aviv with a Harvard Doctoral student that he met at the hostel where they were both staying.  It wasn't until the two of them came to Jerusalem that I got to finally meet the person with whom I'd been corresponding for so long.

We arranged to meet on Ben Yehuda Street and it wasn't hard to spot him crossing the street.

During the inter-tribal violence that surrounded the recent Kenyan elections, my African correspondent had told me that he'd been spared from some of the danger because, being very tall, he could pass for a Massai instead of his Kikuyu tribe, if he had to.  As I watched this tall, slim African man walk across King George Street to meet me, I understood what he meant. 

The first culture clash occurred when I gave him a hug.  I'm used to the typical American male single hug (with some back slapping thrown in to keep things hetero) followed by a quick release.  Apparently they do a 'double hug' with a partial release in the middle where he comes from.  Oops.  :-)

But seriously, once I saw him and we began to chat, all I could think of was, 'of course this is what he would look like... and why on earth was I worried about him?'

My African correspondent had originally intended to visit the north of Israel as well, but since he lost a few days of his vacation waiting for his visa to be issued, he split his time between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem... with a day trip to Ein Gedi thrown in to boot.

During his time in the Jerusalem area we were honored to be able to host him in our home and Zahava expressed her hospitality the only way she knows how; she fed him to within an inch of his life! 

For his part, my African correspondent was the perfect guest; soft spoken, considerate, engaging, funny and embarrassingly generous.  He brought gifts of traditional tribal clothing for everyone in our family plus some peacock earrings and a handbag which Ariella instantly claimed for herself.

For my part, I gave him a gift of a couple of books about sections of Israeli history that are largely ignored and/or overly politicized.  One was called 'Zion before Zionism' which is about the history of what is today called Israel before the modern Zionist movement was born.  The other (whose name escapes me at this early hour of the morning) was an unvarnished look at the Lehi (Stern Gang) and Etzel (Irgun) during the period immediately before the establishment of the state.  I figured he could find the more conventional stuff to read on his own.

I find it interesting that the the comments on yesterday's post were fairly evenly split over whether or not to sign the papers for this young man to be able to visit Israel.  Most of what people had to say - both for and against doing so - went through my mind during the decision-making process.  But in the end I felt that the right thing to do was to trust my gut... and this young man.

He's now back in Kenya and is probably reading this at work (shame on you for reading blogs on company time!).  From what I understand he enjoyed his trip very much and would like to come back for another visit some time in the future.  Most importantly, we Israelis don't seem to have tarnished his vision of the region very much and he still counts himself among Israel's staunchest supporters in East Africa.

All I can say at this point is that whenever my African correspondent (I'll leave it up to him to reveal his identity or not) wants to visit again, the guest room at chez treppenwitz is waiting patiently for his return.