Handshakes

You'll never guess who shook my hand last week.  Go ahead and try... Give up?  It was the President of Guinea!  Yeah, you read that right, the President (as in 'Hail to the Chief') of Guinea (as in Country of).  Isn't that wild?!
I knew something was up when I looked out the window during class and saw guys with guns buzzing around our ship in a little speedboat.  As it happens, President Alpha Conde was touring a great big French Navy Vessel that had been parked behind us on the docks for the last few weeks, and I had caught a glimpse of what amounts to the amphibious wing of the Guinea Secret Service (only not really secret, considering the ginormous guns).  Since he was already in the neighborhood, the President decided to drop by the Africa Mercy as well.  So the announcement was made that if we want to hear the President speak we need to be in the International Lounge at 15:00, wearing our Sunday best, otherwise stay out of sight. Oh, and if you were planning to leave the ship, you can forget it on account of the small army(!) that is now guarding the gangway.  Since I was done teaching, I thought I'd go and hear what he had to say.  As we all waited in the International Lounge for the President and his entourage of ministers and guardians to finish their tour of the hospital, we were prepped on proper President-listening behaviour.  Basically, you stand up when he comes in and wait for someone important to tell you you can sit down again.  Not too complicated, right?  But I don't mind telling you that the longer we waited for him to come, the more nervous I became.  What if I mess it all up somehow?  What if I sneeze in the middle of his speech?  I began to wish I had washed my hair and shaved my legs that morning, or taken an extra fifteen minutes to put on some make-up.  I'm pretty sure I could actually feel my leg hairs growing. 
After what was probably less than the three hours it felt like, he finally came.  Like people at a wedding, we all rose to our feet and watched him process up to his special chair at the front of the room.  Then, we sat down.  Phew!  No international incidents so far.  Donovan Palmer (our Head Guy) gave a very nice presentation on what Mercy Ships does and stuff, and then President Conde rose and gave a speech of his own.  He struck me as a very eloquent and genuine speaker.  He said he was surprised to find that we were an international group (and not just from the United States) and that there were whole families living and working on the ship.  He also shared some of his hopes and aspirations for Guinea, and thanked us for changing the lives of the people we're able to help.  It was a lovely speech, and at the end of it, he said, "I would like to shake each one of you by the hand!"
I'm sure it drove his security guys crazy.  Nevertheless, President Alpha Conde walked up and down each row of seats (a rather squishy affair since there's not much space between rows), looked each one of us in the eye, and with a quiet 'thank you,' shook our hands.
Wow.
One of my mom's favourite verses to quote is, "For you do not know what a day will bring forth." To which I can only add a hearty Amen.