Dominoes.

I spent this past weekend in Austin, Texas with my beautiful and wonderful bestfran: Allyssa. We were fortunate enough to get to represent the Chamber of Commerce at Aquapalooza- this huge concert on Lake Travis- where we got to stand 20 feet from Brad Paisley and enjoy his musical stylings fo' free. In the tent that we sat in for the Chamber, we met these 3 extremely nice adults from a nearby county. When things were slow, we decided to play dominoes. We had never played before, but soon, we were (kind of...) getting the hang of it; but above all, we enjoyed the company of the people we were with.

Playing this game got me thinking about dominoes. I remember watching some sort of special on these little tiles on ESPN of all channels. It was some competition where you set them all up in those mazes (like when you were a kid) and you see how cool it can look when they fall. You hit the first, and that one causes the next one to fall, and so on and so on.

Life is like dominoes.

I am a firm believer in fate: everything happens for a reason. You have only a few things in life to rely on, and one of those things is the Lord and your faith, to get through the times in your fate that are the least 'ideal'. Nonetheless, once the first domino of life is hit, each subsequent one follows the next and the sequence of life proceeds til the last domino topples over. The ones in-between? These are the events that the Lord has lined up in place for you. How you chose to deal with them is entirely up to you, but these dominoes will fall.

One moment in particular on our trip to South Africa reminds me of this domino metaphor. It was near the end of our trip. In fact, we were leaving to come home to America after our month there.

It all started about 5 days into our trip. Domino 1. I get an email from Orbitz telling me our domestic flight from East London to Jo-burg was rescheduled... up 5 hours. This now gave us a 12 hour lay-over in the Jo-burg airport. Ew, ew, ew. This would have been uncomfortable not to mention unsafe because Jo-burg can be a pretty sketchy city. Needless to say, we were not hapy campers.

Domino 2. Contacting my dad. My dad is one that loves to be the hero of the story, you know, save the day. So, once again, here comes SuperDad to my rescue. One of his 50-something cousins somehow lives in Jo-burg. Her husband, Brian, is in the gold and coal mining business, and they have a 3 year contract to live in South Africa. Problem: my dad's cousin was in the states visiting. Luckily, she was so kind as to forward our information on to her sweet husband who promptly contacted us with TONS of ideas of what we could do in our 12 hour layover.

Domino 3. Then, Brian, the husband, proceeds to tell us that his driver, Wandile, this 6'5'' jacked black dude, would be to our services that day. He said Wandile would pick us up from the airport and take us wherever we wanted to go: Lion Park, Nelson Mandela Square, the Montecarlo Casino, the Mall, anywhere. But of course, he reminds us again of the sketchy-ness that is Jo-burg's greatest accessory. Good thing we had Wandile. Personal body guard and driver? Generosity at its best.

Domino 4. The day before our flight to Jo-burg, as we drove to our final destination before traveling home, we realize that we messed up... BIG TIME. The stupidity I felt when I looked at our 3 flight itinerary again to realize that we accidentally booked our domestic flight 36 HOURS IN ADVANCE was enough to feed all of the continent of Africa. What were we thinking? Better yet, how was it that this spoof was not caught until we were about to leave? Yes, I was panicked. Yes, it was obvious. Buttttt, Domino 3 was in place. It had fallen, and we were blessed and fortunate enough to have a place to stay in Jo-burg. Brain was overjoyd ot have us stay the night. His wife had been in the states for almost 3 months. He said, and I quote, "I am going batshit crazy by myself." We were happy to help.

Domino 5. June 16th in South Africa is Youth Day, a public holiday. Every office is closed. Our driver and body guard, Wandile, got in a car accident on the way to get us at the airport. So, Brian, my 2nd-cousin-in-law (?), met us at the airport instead. Luckily, he had the day off thanks to Youth Day, otherwise, once again, we would be two unlucky ducks.

Domino 6, 7, and 8. African Market. Lion Park. Nelson Mandela Square. Allyssa and I got to experience 3 incredible things, which, without our flub, would have been impossible. I love dominoes. I also love African Markets. We got to haggle with the store vendors, and we convinced them we were from Spain. 'Hola Chicas!' We also got to go to a wildlife game reserve and pet baby lion cubs and feed a giraffe. Just wait...

Domino 9. Giraffe feeding! How cool! Well, lets just say it was almost impossible to capture. Allyssa and I underestimated how much zoom kills the battery life of cameras. So as we get to the grand finale of the game reserve, our batteries die. At the same time. This sort of bad luck BUT then we met Don. Don Walker. The man of our dreams, that is, of course, if Allyssa and I weren't madly in love with our soulmates. Anywhoooo he was wearing a UT shirt, and we thought we could just ask him to take our picture and then send it to us when he got back to the states. It worked, and sure enough, we got this special memory captured.

Domino 9 1/2. Did I mention that Brian had a beautiful, luxurious house with CENTRAL HEATING?!?! Finally. Warmth. After a month in Africa freezing, as my grandmother would say, our gagutzas off. I finally was able to unpeel 5 of the 6 layers of clothing I had been wearing. I slept in shorts for crying out loud. Thank you Lord! He also had internet. Beautiful.

Domino 10. Friends. Allyssa and I got to share a few meals and time talking with Brian, getting to him and his life. He is a wonderful, kind man with a huge heart. He spoiled us while we were there, and we did nothing to deserve it. It was such a perfect example of grace and selflessness. I love this man :) We even got to be with him when he found out his daughter was expecting her first child! It was a very cool moment. We also made friends with our new driver, Senzo. He cracked us up! He was able to speak over 7 languages, including a majority of the languages spoken in South Africa. Lovely man! He was apart of our last picture in South Africa.

So lets reexamine this domino effect... If our flight had never been changed, we would have never contacted Brian, and then when we finally realized our mistake, we would have been stranded. BUT the situation was totally an awesome one. I got to pet a freaking lion cub.

I realize now that what may seem as bad luck or an unfortunate situation may just be the first domino in a long line of dominoes that leads to a very, very happy ending. Maybe this is how life should always be looked at: with sincere optimism. Why do we, as humans, always jump the worst possible conclusion? I am not ashamed to admit I do that often in life. Sure, I try my hardest and I work on my relationship with Christ to bring myself to a place where I can look at the world with a pragmatic point of view. But I have my faults.

I am so happy and blessed to have had this seemingly bad luck on my trip home. It turned out to be some of the best memories of the trip. And, most importantly, it taught me a little but about life. Of course, when I least expected it.