THE TAXI DRIVER

I left Guadeloupe airport, immediately greeted by the heat. How long had I dream to visit the Caribbean Islands! And finally, here I am!
My euphoria turned to a feeling of uncertainty very fast. There were no lockers in the airport building. What would I do without locking my heavy winter clothing in the airport just how I planned to do? In fact, I only had a tiny hand baggage for my summer clothing because I hate to travel with heavy luggage, especially when I did not book the hostel in advance. I did not want to attract attention as a newly arrived tourist.
Then I realised there were to public transportation to quit the airport. Apparently they don't had European standards here although this was France! There was only a little car rental agency but I left my driving license at home. I also failed to find someone who would give me a ride.

Suddenly, just in time with my thought that I would be forced to take I taxi to get away from here, I noticed one of the black taxi drivers who-unlike his fellows hanging around in the corner-just drove some clients to the airport. He seemed to notice me at the same time because our eyes met and I got an uncommon feeling of knowing him.
I walked towards him and asked him to drive me to the address of a hostel a just looked up before taking the flight. We rarely spoke on our trip and we arrived in entire jungle, no hostel anywhere. So he proposed I could stay in his house where he lived together with his old and sick mother caring for her.

I agreed and stayed with him. Later in the afternoon, after driving some clients to the remotest part of the island, it turned out that he also had this special feeling noticing me at the airport for the first time and he told me: “You are here because you are escaping from something.” And he was right.
This taxi driver was rather a psychotherapist, he healed my mental wounds. He had an unbelievable sense of emotions of others.

Neither him nor me were religious but this encounter had such a supernatural emphasis that I keep thinking that we had something in common, probably our similar attitude towards life.
We understood each other without words in such a short time! And we both had the same point of view about everything we discussed about! Could it really be accidentally that I met him in the right place and time?

During my stay he guided me to places I've never seen before like waterfalls in the tropical rainforest and the volcano of La Soufrière.