January 23, 2010
We don’t even know his full name. We certainly could not spell it.
Wole is from Nigeria and he works for one of the world’s largest international companies, Maersk Line [Sealand]. He has worked in Spain for over three years and was transferred last week to his home country. We mention him because in our short four months here Wole has become a good friend and we are very sorry to lose him to a business transfer.
We met Wole at our church. He is a quiet and joyful young man who is somewhat symbolic to us of the modern international world we live in. His office here in Spain included persons from twelve different countries. Most of his work here was conducted in English or Spanish. Working for Maersk he may have picked up some Danish? He joked that we foreigners understand each other speaking Spanish better than we understand local Spaniards because we all speak Castilian [official Spanish] rather than the local Andaluz dialect.
He along with other new friends at church plus the guests here at the house have come from Thailand, Mexico, Ireland, England, Korea, Kenya, Nigeria and, of course, many parts of the USA. Such is the introduction to an international cultural understanding we are experiencing.