QMusings

I was in a taxi leaving ATL.

DEN. IAD. DFW. DTW. Just a few of the airports I’ve been at.

I was heading towards a county where homeowners are required to own a handgun. Not sure if that narrows it down for you.

When it comes to speaking with fellow travelers or taxi drivers, if we both wanna talk, we talk. Otherwise, no talk.

The taxi driver and I ended up talking. He had this deep rolling voice and whiskers – old-fashioned mutton chop whiskers in this age of stenciled facial hair.

As with all conversations, we spoke first about the weather, then about the traffic. He said, “If you don’t have traffic, then you’re not in Atlanta!”

I said, “You’re not from here.”

He laughed and said that he was from Nigeria. West Africa. He had moved to Atlanta with his family.

He was dark with round cheeks, large round slightly protruding eyes and a stocky build. I asked him if he could tell the difference between the different African races. I used my generally being able to tell the difference between Chinese, Korean and Japanese as an example.

He laughed and said, yes, he can tell, just by looking, if someone is from Ghana, or Sudan or the Ivory Coast. I hadn’t heard the term “Ivory Coast” in a long while. He added, “But put me in Europe – I can’t tell who is what!”

He told me that Americans have no culture, that it’s all about money: how much money you had, how to make more of it. He said, “I’ve been here 15 years and all I do is spend my time working!”

As he drove the van, he kept his hands on 10 and 2, his eyes on the road, and his speed at the limit. He told me how when he was a boy in Nigeria, he didn’t ask for shoes, he was given them. He said his boys ask for certain shoes. He mentioned what type his boys wanted.

His children want. They ask for things. He doesn’t recall asking for thing as a boy in Nigeria. The driver said as a boy, he didn’t have many shoes. He did have some to wear to church because as a Christian, you dressed to go to church.

He said that he didn’t even use toothpaste until he went to what sounded like boarding school. He used a chewing stick.

I asked if it was weird to use toothpaste for the first time, would you even know what it was for?

He replied he’d seen it, knew what it was, but he had stuck with using a chewing stick. Still does in fact. Thinks that it may be better than toothpaste. He stated that has no dental problems…none!

He said that children in America don’t respect their elders. He said that his father passed away 7 years ago and he thinks about how much good advice his father had given him, but he didn’t realize it until later. He hopes that his boys will realize that the advice he is giving them is good, that they may hear the echo of their father when they speak with their children someday.

One piece of advice his father gave him was to not eat outside the house. The driver said that he never eats at friends’ places, even when invited to dinner parties. They understand this and are not insulted. He tells his children to do the same. He said that he has never been sick because of this.

I thought that he just never ate out, that he always had home-cooking so that he knew what he was eating.

He later said that this restriction didn’t apply to restaurants, that he orders Chinese takeout or goes to fast food places. He said that his father told him not to eat outside the home because people can poison you. Here I was thinking that eating at home was to have a healthy diet.

I was puzzling about how eating at a restaurant wasn’t “eating outside the house” when he said that a friend knows you are coming over, they know you. They can hurt you. Restaurants don’t know you, don’t care about you.

It’s the people who know you who can harm you the easiest.

I pondered that.

We arrived at my hotel and returned to the topic of chewing sticks. I was able to see his big square gappy teeth as he smiled at me. He said that there are all different kinds of chewing sticks, some bitter tasting. But they work! I said I believe that they did. He added, “But the best is if you use the chewing stick AND toothpaste!”

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