Next desitination was to visit Dr. Marc Choi of Paris UBF. The flight for this trip began from Joberg to (Harare of Zimbabwe for stop over then to) Addis Abbaba of Ethiopia then to Charles De Gaule. The wait at the Addis Abbaba for the midnight flight was difficult (no toilets at the boarding area with limited seats.)
At the gate 3 the screen said "Hangzow" but the agent said "Go ahead: this is the boarding gate for the passengers going to Paris." I was confused so asked a passenger standing in line "You are not going to Hangzow China but to Paris are you?" He said "Paris! You know this is Ethiopean Airline!" I got the message and boarded the airplane with peace of mind.
Past midnight I was on board. It was a seven hours of flight to CDG. During the flight I read a novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad, describing an English man's adventure into Africa, the heart (land) of darkness. Here are some of the vocabularies and lines of interest.
- toga, chap
- We live in the flicker - may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling!
- The worst that could be said of him (Marlow) was that he did not represent his class.
- He (one the Romans exploring England some 1900 years ago) has to live in the midst of the incomprehensible, which is also detestable. And it has a fascination, too, that goes to work upon him. The fascination of abomination - you know, imagine the growing regrets, the longing to escape, the powerless disgust, the surrender, the hate... Mind none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency - devotion to efficiency... What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea - something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to..."
Upon landing at the Charles DeGaul airport at 6:00 am I checked into a hotel near the Eiffel tower. In talking to Missionary Rebekah Choi of Paris UBF I learned this hotel is a little removed from the center so the next day I moved to a hotel near the Paris UBF center.
Paris UBF does not have any meetings on Friday so that afternoon via Metro line I went out to a place called Shakespeare Street known as "the street of old bookstores." Nearby was the Notre Dame. There I saw modern day Quasimodos, Esmeraldas and Frollos floating around.
Because of the trail I did in South Africa my legs remained sore. So I came back to the hotel and rested.
This is 4th visit to Paris which shaped my view on the people of France:
- They (Parisians) believe in fashion style reflecting God's image.
- They are thinking people just as Descartes said "I exist because I think." As a thinking people they try to make things creatively. Ex. - At the Mercury hotel they furnished the facilities with the stuff "made in France" not China. :-)
- Heavy Catholic influence (Consider Frollo in Victor Hugo's novel, a priest torn between obsession in continual lust and the church rules)
- Often they are a bit too creative, :-) as has been said by someone (unknown) - The British are good in doing what they are supposed to do; Germans good in not doing what they are not supposed to be doing; Russians are good in not doing what they are supposed to do, but the French are really good in doing what they are not supposed to be doing).
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