As of Friday, April 17, we were officially in the last half of our trip! The trip has been exciting, busy and full of new experiences. Nothing has been scary or out of the ordinary....until that day! Once again, my wonderful husband wanted to add some excitement in our life and he did just that!!
On Friday we were invited to shoot the photography for a wedding. We started the morning at the salon and everything was going just fine. In true woman fashion, the bride was running late so we were in quite a hurry to get to the ceremony. In addition to being late, there was a lot of traffic. Andrew decided that we were not late enough and here the story begins! While we were sitting in traffic a huge and awesome military truck pulled up next to us. Within it, there was about 15-20 military personal armed with fully automatic weapons. I had the camera on my lap and I saw Andrew look first at the truck, then the camera. All I said was, "No." Being the man who wants to document everything, especially something as cool as this truck, he snapped a shot. It all seemed like it was going well, he didn't get caught and we got a great picture!
Would I be posting something if this was the end of the story? Absolutely not! All of a sudden, in the middle of traffic, the truck stopped and two of the military men ran over to our vehicle. Now, we are learning French, but still are not fluent. By the way they were yelling and the looks on their faces, I don't think they were happy. One of the men reached into the back seat, where we were and grabbed the camera out of Andrew's hand. Andrew and the man struggled a few seconds with the camera. Andrew decided to let him have it, as he says, "Because I didn't want him to break it!" So here we are, no camera, in the middle of traffic, already late for a wedding and now following a military truck full of armed soldiers.
I just want to thank God for the bilingual people He has given us on this trip. That day, our driver was bilingual. Once the truck pulled over and we stopped behind it, our driver was trying to get our camera back. We found out that taking pictures of military and their equipment is apparently illegal in Cote D'Ivoire. oops! The military men explained that because of the political tension between France and Cote D'Ivoire, this was a law. Much to Andrew's dismay, the military thought that he was French, hence the reason for the "freak out." Once our driver explained that we were indeed proud citizens of the U.S.A., they apologized, gave us our camera back and shook hands all around.
And that was it. No one in the car said another word about it, the military truck took a different route than us and we proceeded to a beautiful wedding. Thank you Jesus that Andrew is not locked up in an African jail somewhere! Even more evidence that He is with us everyday!
On a wifely note: I do want to take this opportunity to wash my hands of this situation! I did tell Andrew not to take a picture. I didn't know it was illegal, nor did our driver, but I was not going to take the chance with 15-20 fully automatic weapons!! So, husbands....just listen to us! Sometimes we do have the voice of reason!!
Andrew's Rebuttal: For those of you who's hobby is photography
(Mocha and Amie); when that shot comes along, you just have to take it. This was that shot. However, upon receiving my camera back, I was
forced to erase the photo. Man!!! All that mess and I don't even have the shot
to show you. However, here is a photo
from the wedding we attended.
This makes me laugh! What a great story! I can just imagine what your faces looked like as the military personnel approached!!! haha! Love you guys! 73 more days!
Posted by: Stacy | April 21, 2009 at 08:16 AM
Wow! I am so glad Andrew didn't go to jail too. God is so GOOD!
So what are your plans now. Are you so hooked on Africa that you will be going back and making it more permanent or what?
Posted by: Krystal Johnson | April 26, 2009 at 06:15 PM
Love this one! Fully understand the "gotta get the shot" mentality. I've kneeled in mud and muck and indescribable goo to geet the shot.
Glad for your translators too!!!!!!
Great wedding picture!
Bless you both! Aunt Lori
Posted by: Lorilise Scarborough | April 28, 2009 at 10:32 PM