The ecumenical family

Although we had been close to two weeks at the World Council of Churches 10th Assembly in Busan most of the other participants remained unknown. At the airport I saw lots of people whom I understood came from the ecumenical movement. Some were obviously clergy. Others still wore the green name-tags which all of us had been given when the assembly began.

 

Masimba from Harare waiting at the cafe.

When I left the plane in Beijing (where the waiting time was seven hours) I recognized a colleague from my own university who was going to catch the same flight. I also saw two other South Africans, whom I understood were also booked on the flight to Johannesburg. Another familiar face was a Zimbabwean assembly participant. I can’t say that we knew each other but I guess the relation with Southern Africa brought us together. We lined up at the check in counter and were told that we had to wait four hours before the SAA counter opened. Since we were on transfer we had to stay in the designated area and there were no opportunities to buy coffee or tea or anything to eat. We felt a bit ill-treated.  Just to add, Masimba from Zimbabwe happens to be blind. It was in deed strange when the accompanying staff member from Asian Airlines just left him. Bad service! A person with disabilities usually gets help to check in and often gets to spend time in a lounge. Anyhow, we didn’t mind – because Masimba is a very pleasant person and together the five of us became a group in itself: Stiaan, Roderick, Thabile, Masimba and Anders. Almost like a family. An ecumenical family.

Roderick from Jamaica (but my colleague at UKZN) and Stiaan from Midrand.

Thabile from Eastern Cape and I enjoying coffee and tea.

The first problem was: how to get something to eat and drink? The only way was to go through immigration and into the People’s Republic of China. It meant walking a distance, using several escalators, travelling by one of those airport shuttle trains etc. We finally got to the departure hall and made ourselves comfortable at a cafe. One option could have been to take a taxi into Beijing but it was Saturday evening and we didn’t have too much time. So we enjoyed the cafe and the company. After four hours we went to the ordinary check in counter and were able to check in and so we returned to the gate. The five of us! It was really nice when we sat in our seats (close to one another) and Masimba said:

So, the whole family is gathered!

Thank you so much all of you for very good company in Beijing!