Written by: Gary Wonning
I had replied to an ad in Outdoor Photography. A man living in Zambia was needing to communicate with someone in the states, film processing was difficult there and he needed someone to process film for him. I replied as it sounded like a lucrative business proposition, he even mentioned paying for my passage to Zambia for business purposes. What did I have to lose, he was going to pick up the tab?
The trip was to take place in a few months so I began to make plans and applied for a passport. When I applied for the passport, the birth certificate I had wasn’t the correct one. I didn’t realize the hospital birth certificate wasn’t a legal document, so first off, I had to apply for a new birth certificate from the county health department.
Upon receiving the correct birth certificate, I noticed my first name was spelled differently than the way I had been spelling it all my life. My name was spelled Garald on the birth certificate and I had been spelling it Gerald all these years. The funny part about it, people had always called me Garald instead of Gerald. Quite a revelation. As it turned out, later when I began to understand numerology more, the difference in spelling made a big difference in my life plan.
Evidently, the doctor had written it down wrong at my birth, and my parents weren’t even aware of the error. The original birth certificate couldn’t be changed so we decided to make my passport match my driver’s license, no one in customs was going to see my birth certificate.
As things progressed, many unseen circumstances prevented me from traveling to Zambia. The adventure was all but forgotten.
Two years had gone by and as I sat reading the morning paper the Sunday before Thanksgiving, a travel ad caught my eye. A group trip was being planned for the two weeks after Christmas to Egypt, it was leaving on December 26th, only five weeks away, and the price was fantastic.
The ad had been placed by a professor Kennedy of Xavier University in Cincinnati and was providing the opportunity to visit Egypt during the Christmas holidays. What better way to spend New Year’s Eve, than in The land of the Pharaohs!
It went on to state it would be a twelve-day trip, visiting Cairo, Memphis, Luxor, Thebes, Alexandria, Saqqara, and Giza, an all-inclusive trip for $999.
I had some time off after Christmas and so far had no plans. I realized this would be perfect. There isn’t much to do in Indiana this time of year, it would be a good time to travel to a warmer climate. I had been wondering whatever possessed me to take a vacation at this time of year, now I had my answer.
I immediately called and made a reservation, I was on my way to the next step of my journey to enlightenment. The next five weeks flew by, extremely busy with my work I had little time to think about the trip.
As the time approached, IÂ realized it takes at least six weeks to apply for and receive a passport, if I hadn’t gotten a passport when I was thinking of going to Zambia, this trip would never have materialized and I would have missed one of the great adventures of my life.
The author has been a writer/photographer for over thirty years. Specializing in nature and landscape photography, as well as studying native cultures.
His travels have taken him to most of the United States, as well as Australia, Belize, Egypt and the Canary Islands.
He has studied the Mayan culture of Central America as well as the aborigines of Australia. Photography has given him the opportunity to observe life in various parts of the world.
He has published several books about his adventures.
For more information, please consult his website,www.journeysthrulife.com.
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Thinking Between the Lines 