Sayid again, and thoughts
We were walking down one of the streets in Tangier's Medina (walled city) when Xin Hui heard a whistle and instinctively glanced in the direction of the sound. A few steps ahead, I hadn't heard the whistle as I was more preoccupied with keeping an eye out for hustlers and pickpockets, and also looking for a taxi because we were headed to the train station to catch a train to Fes. I heard her shriek, "Sayid!!!" and I turned around in astonishment. There, in front of us, grinning from ear to ear, was the Moroccan we had missed and thought we'd never see again: our driver from Madrid to Linares, our intended ride from Linares to Algeciras: Sayid!
"You made it!" he exclaimed in French. He said something else about the port that I couldn't catch. "Weren't we meeting at 5 o'clock?" he asked. Xin Hui tried to explain to him what happened, but he didn't look as if he understood. I tried miming to him that it was my fault, but I wasn't sure if he got it.
Still, he was clearly glad to see us, and he congratulated us for completing our quest. We shook hands and bid each other good luck and farewell.
It may seem an amazing coincidence for us to cross paths again with him on a random city street in Tangier, but this trip has been filled with so many coincidences- good and bad- that somehow when I think about it I am not that surprised. Probably more than anything else, this trip has really showed me how life always constantly throws up new and unexpected twists and turns, and in the words of Tony, the laid-backed Australian driver who took us from Seville to the E5 coastal road just past Cadiz, "Whatever happens in life- just go with it." Perhaps it was no coincidence that Tony himself appeared when I was at my lowest ebb, full of anger and frustration with myself. His wise words will not be forgotten.