homeAbout Meadoptionsponsorcontact photo g_zpsbad26645.png

August 3, 2013

I forgot to mention the marriage proposal I received in an airport in Africa...

It was our second trip to visit Abi and Sean and I were coming home from Africa.  It was round 2. The night before we had spent hours on the tarmac, only to be told that our flight was missing a part (comforting) and would be delayed 24 hours, thus causing us to spend an unexpected night at a hotel with 150 other passengers. Now we were back at the airport and on our second trip through security in a day and a half.  Sean and I got split up at security.  As Sean waited in the wings for me to get through, I was asked to step up to the security attendant. Having done this twice before I knew the drill.  They would ask me if I had anything in my bags they couldn't see... I would say 'no.'  Etc.  It's always a little nerve wracking honestly.  So I stepped up and the security attendant started asking me the familiar questions.  "How long have you been here?"  "Do you like the ocean here?"  "Why were you traveling?" And then he says, "If you marry me you can stay."

"Pardon?"

"You marry me, you can stay as long as you want."

I just looked at him, reading his expressions. His face was serious. I smiled and kind of laughed and gave all the "haha you're funny, now let me through security" type of body language.  But he just stared and didn't budge. He then turned around and grabbed another man who had been sitting on a table behind him. The man walked over and looked at me. "This is my brother, he is a very eligible bachelor.  You could marry him if you wanted. He's very nice.  Good man."  The brother (late twenties early thirties) stared at me, smiling, waiting for an answer (?!)  I looked around.  They were serious.

"I'm married." I said, as I showed them my ring, previously covered by my carry-on luggage. But by this time they were too busy explaining  why each was a good candidate for marriage. The line behind me was getting longer. The only other security guard started waving people from our long line through hers to alleviate the massive crowd forming behind me. I smiled, "But I'm married." And yet they continued to explain, paying my words no attention. Finally, I took my ring finger and put it in the air (which is surely some huge cultural flub since it's my left hand) and pointed to it.  They stopped talking. Despite the other guard's efforts, the line behind me was seriously held up, but since one of the men was an employee there, nobody could say anything.

Finally, the first man looked at my hand and said, "You're married??"   "YES." At this point, a THIRD man came up to inspect my hand.  "You're married??"
"Yes, I'm married and I'm not too sure how my husband would feel about me marrying one of you." They stood there quietly.  
And then one man said, "This is very disappointing."

They handed me my bags and right before waving me through the line, the first man stared at me straight in the eye and said, "Well then come back with your sister, okay?"

I said, "Okay..." and went on to the next round of security.

Oh my.

6 comments:

Alli said...

I think that wins for best marriage proposal ever.

Unknown said...

What Alli said.
Ha!

Iris said...

Bwahahaha, this is fantastic....

Emily said...

I received a marriage proposal in Kenya a few weeks ago from a stranger. In front of an entire church congregation while they all were waiting eagerly for my answer.

Renee said...

OMG that's hilarious!!

Unknown said...

I receive such proposals sometimes even on the internet, when I take part in an online language learning community...
A guy wants to start to chat with me, but then he writes 'You have beautiful hair, do you want to marry me?'.... Ehrm...no!^^
So weird!!!^^