A few days ago, I was standing in line at the Hypermarket grocery store in the Mall in Salinas. I noticed that the person in front of me was obviously non-Ecuadorian, not so much by the way he looked, but more due to the fact that he was buying imported trail mix bars. No Ecuadorian would buy such an item. Also, he was standing in line behind the person in front of him, leaving a respectable distance between them. Ecuadorians never leave space between people in line, frequently touching the person in front of them.
The cashier recognized that both the man in front of me and I were not Ecuadorian, and she tried to ring up both of our purchases together. I mean, what are the chances that there would be two gringo customers in a row who didn’t know each other? The man and I corrected her and we made our separate purchases. During the transactions, I made a comment to the man that the cashier was surprised that we weren’t somehow related, and that it was odd having two gringo customers in a row who didn’t know each other.
I found out that the man’s name was Andrew, that he was from Seattle Washington, and that he was in the middle of a medical crisis. His girlfriend, Lisanna had just undergone emergency surgery for a burst appendix, and she was in the hospital across the street from the mall. Andrew and Lisanna had been traveling the world together for the last 7 months, and they were in Montanita, a small coastal town in Ecuador, when Lisanna became really sick. Andrew was on his way back to Montanita to gather their stuff that they had left in a hostel before rushing to Salinas to get medical help. I gave Andrew a ride to the bus station so that he could board a bus to Montanita. On our drive together, I learned that Lisanna was from Minnesota, and that she was from the Christiansen family, a reknown family in choral music. I told Andrew that we used to live in Minnesota, and that my husband Rob trained at Hennepin County Medical Center. We marveled that we had some similarities in common, and we commented about how the world was indeed small.
Andrew told me a “small world” story about the strange coincidence they experienced in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It seems that early in their first day in Buenos Aires, Lisanna remarked that she only knew two people from Argentina, twin girls who had lived in Seattle. Lisanna worked with one of the twins for a period of time. Later that day while seated at a restaurant, Lis spotted someone who looked just like her friend. Lis finally got the nerve up to ask the woman if she had ever lived in Seattle. Shockingly, the woman said she had. It turned out that she was the twin sister of the woman who had briefly worked with Lisanna. Small world.
Along the way to the bus station, we spoke with Rob on the phone to discuss the care plan of Lis. Rob was in Guayaquil at the time, but would return the next day to Salinas. He promised to visit Lis and help with communication with the Ecuadorian surgeons, if needed. When we got to the bus station, Andrew and I exchanged phone numbers and I invited him to stay with us during this crisis (It turned out that Andrew didn’t stay with us because he stayed in the hospital room with Lis). I then visited with Lis at the hospital to let her know of the connection we made with Andrew and that Rob would come visit her the next day.
The next day, Rob arrived from Guayaquil. He and I visited Lis in the hospital for about 20 minutes. At the end of the visit, Andrew returned and we all met each other for the first time in the same room. Rob left his business card with Lis so that she could use him as a resource when conversing with her surgeon.
From the business card, Andrew learned that Rob and he shared the same last name. When speaking with his mom that night on the phone, Andrew wondered to his mother if Rob and he could somehow be related. That night Andrew called Rob. After about 30 seconds it was confirmed: ROB AND ANDREW ARE FIRST COUSINS!!!!!
Rob and Andrew had never met previously because Andrew’s dad, David, moved out West many years ago. David married Claudia, and they had a son together, named Andrew. Rob is about 13 years older than Andrew, and their paths simply never crossed. Until now. In Ecuador. In a chance meeting. Small world!
So now that our families are connected in this strange mix of fate, we have insisted that Lis and Andrew stay with us so that we can help with Lis’ recovery. Lis is still way too sick to travel. The goal today is to try to venture past rice in the solid food category. Or, maybe not. Maybe that will happen tomorrow or the next day. But Lis a strong person, she has a good sense of how to take care of herself, and I trust that she will know when the time is right to venture into the land of the eating.
It has been fun seeing the family resemblances in Andrew and Rob. Besides sharing the general Fuller physical features, they are both woodworkers, home-improvement specialists, musicians, good story tellers, adventurous travelers, and extremely caring people.
I have been impressed by the way Andrew has handled this crisis situation. He has nimbly negotiated the insurance payment of the hospital bill (not an easy task, ANYWHERE, especially Ecuador, and particularly using rudimentary Spanish skills), he has politely but firmly advocated for Lis’ nursing care, and he has prepared rice and other bland foods for her. It is clear that both Andrew and Lis are independent and self-sufficient people: they’ve managed to travel the world in the last 7 months with little more than a backpack and some advanced planning. I’m sure they would have found an equally effective way to handle Lis’ recovery had we not met in the Hypermarket. But this chance meeting is nothing short of a miracle, and we’d be fools not to go along with The Plan.
Here's a link to Andrew's blog: www.fuzzytravel.com/guru2008
