driving and talking

I was out for a drive today and saw a hitchhiker outside the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine. She was headed for Belfast but I wasn’t planning on going any further than Ballymoney – Still she reckoned every little helps and got in.

Almost immediately we began one of the best conversations I’ve had in months. It just seemed to move seamlessly from topic to topic with hardly a break for her to take a bite of her sandwich or for me to check my dangerously low diesel level.

It turns out she’s from the Yukon, had been wondering what to do, decided to hitchhike her way round Ireland – like you do if you’ve got a spare moment in the Yukon. We discussed people, differences in people, similarities in people, relationships between people, people and their food, people and their jobs, people looking out for other people and people and religion.

It turns out she’s an evangelical Christian. Despite being here for months she claims she only met her first evangelical Christian in that past few days. I found that really hard to believe but was more than happy to take her word for it.

It turns out she finds all the different versions of Presbyterianism confusing – this gave me the opportunity to try out my short explanation of the various Ps. Now anyone who has listened to my explanation of the various Ps will know that the 7 miles between Coleraine and Ballymoney isn’t going to cover it – not by a long shot. And by the time I’d finished and she’d returned the favour by explaining the various Canadian denominations we were well on our way to Antrim.

I can honestly say I had an absolute ball and Elizabeth, despite the fact that I ran out of diesel on the ride home, I look forward to talking to you again sometime… highly unlikely but I look forward to it anyway.