The Unforgettable Walk

She was my faithful walking partner. After school, we’d load up baby Ryan in the stroller and take a hike around the roads in the neighborhoods. By the time that I was walking with her, I had a pretty good feeling for the main walking paths. That took some time. During my first months in Salatiga, I did not have a feel for the roads at all. But by the time of this walk, I had learned quite a bit. I remember that we walked a familiar path, in the depths of the jungle. We came to a T in the road and we knew where the road to the right went, but had never taken the road to the left. We decided we would give it a try. We walked around two corners and ended up walking through an area where we sensed we were very foreign. There were quite a few mosques and everyone who looked at us did so with some surprise and others with some hostility. We definitely had a sense of not belonging in the area and we knew that they had rarely seen foreigners. We talked about turning around a few times, but continued on the path, believing that we would come to a road to take to the right that we could take home. We did get more and more confused. We had been walking for a long time with a baby in the stroller. We had no idea where we were. Finally, we ended up at another T in the road and it was a main busy road. There were many cars and motorcycles. We had no idea what road it was and we couldn’t tell how to get back home. We decided to turn right, knowing that it would generally take us closer to home. I remember walking with her, feeling more and more concern. Mt. Merbabu was clouded over and we couldn’t use any of the mountains as a gauge for our location. We just kept walking. Suddenly I saw it, and my heart sunk. It was a concrete fence, and it was very distinct. It was the fence for the slaughterhouse to the west of town. I remember the shock of seeing it and saying, “Oh! I know where we are!!” And, I felt so discouraged because I knew how far away we were from home. I knew where to turn and how to get home. When we were about 20 minutes from getting back home, Ryan fell apart. He was hungry, he was tired of being in the stroller, and he wanted to be home too. By the time we got home we were exhausted but truly relieved. We didn’t have cell phones back then. We had no way to reach our spouses. We decided we would stick to paths that we knew from then on! I remember Casey’s shock when I had him drive me on the path, showing him how far we had walked. He couldn’t believe it. Sometimes it is good to be adventuresome and to try out a new path, but there are some cases where it just isn’t wise.