coincidence and auspice

two rare coincidences led me to good luck:

1. i entered a car at the carrefour and they agreed to three places. the price would be discussed later, since i imagined very little hassle. they give tickets that list the price as 80% higher than i understood it to be. one of the other two places points this out to me. he abuses the moto boy and asks him to write the real price, but the moto boy is obstinate. after another conference i tell him to politely tell the moto boy that we will discuss at our destination. first i was in the back, then i moved up a place each time someone got out but before their replacement got on. i got to my favorite seat aside from shotgun, which includes a window. a sparrow flew into the car and hit my head. it landed in a bag i was carrying. the driver demanded for me to pick it up and give it to him, since it was good luck. other passengers insisted on me throwing the bird back out the window. i gave the bird to the driver who then gave to the moto boy to hold until we got there. at the destination there was a long discussion with the driver and motoboy in the rain and mud about what the price should be, including all of the theatrics. the driver even pretended to walk away and drive off without taking any money to show that no money is better than thieve's money before a settlement was made. the good luck is that the next car was on a home at night run so didn't care if it filled, and the price was agreed upon without any discussion. maybe the good luck was concentrated on me, since i found the bird first.

2. the next is more straight forward. we were taking a stroll outside of my village and were called into the police station. they were concerned about out origins, destinations, and purposes. i found that one of the officers was from lebialem. then when i passed an oral exam: 'you hear nnwe? - slowly' 'you, of years how many have you? - two tens and six, years of two tens and six.' 'surrender the number of you - it is this. five two...' we exchanged phone numbers and they told us to refuse to identify ourselves to any uniformed person we meet later that day, with his orders, as a sign of good faith. they instructed us that if it was strolling we liked, he would recommend us to follow such and such a path until we see a large pile of firewood. we did. on the way a soldier greeted us and told us where the port was, but wanted to know what is our interest in going to the port. it was agreed that seeing the firewood would be suitable, but if we truly wanted to see the port it would require 3km of walking each way. when he asked if we were carrying identification, we explained that we had met with the superiors earlier that morning, so there is no need to worry. at the fireweood we figured that we should get back before rain, so we turned back.