In Search of a Shoe

On Fridays, at least for the last month or so, I have been hanging out at another missionary family's house. The original intent was that Marlene (the mom and wife) were going to do a small Bible study together. This Bible study turned into an all day hang out. Usually I end up eating both lunch and dinner with the family and hang out with their young kids.
However, this morning, Marlene called and asked if I would mind accompanying her husband into town to look for a shoe. They live a bit outside of town and don't go into town much so she felt that I would know where to go better than she would. Plus she had been away from home a lot this week and wanted to spend some time with the kids. I said it was no problem. They have a car so my thought was that I could run into town quickly with her husband. It would be a nice change to the cramped taxi rides. They even have air conditioning in the car.
So, I went to her house to begin the journey into town. Marlene told me that she had gone into town on Wednesday with another friend and found a shoe that she liked. However, there was only one of the shoes available that day. The shoe salesman was a traveling salesman, not uncommon here. They usually move around the city and set up shop on any available sidewalk where they then to proceed to sell to those passing by.
She carefully explained where he was located and told me that he had said he would be at the same place. I had my doubts. They are never in the same place. One reason is that they have no business liscence so the police are always telling them to go away. Another reason, at least in my opinion, is that they move so when whatever they sold you doesn't work you can't find them again.
I told her he probably wouldn't be around. She felt that he would be. He had allowed her to take the one shoe and she hadn't even paid him yet.
So, the adventure into town began for her husband and I. Thankfully, there was no traffic on the way into town and it didnt' take us long to get there. However, once reaching town, traffic was the usual mess. We drove up and down the streets on and around where we had told he would be. He was not to be seen.
We then decided that it would be best for us to park somewhere and look for him on foot. We tried to go to one of the shopping centers to look for parking but got stuck on a one way street lined with taxis that weren't moving. We sat there for about an hour.
Finally, we managed to turn down another side street and find a parking place. We were now on foot. Considering that I'm used to moving around town on foot rather than in a vehicle, I was much more comfortable. The only problem was that there was no sign of the shoe salesman.
We decided the best thing to do was to give him a call. Now we were standing on a busy street. People shouting and car horns honking. And I was supposed to understand what was being said to me. I had no idea where the guy was telling me that he was and he had no idea where I was telling him that I was.
Finally after several phone calls, we managed to locate the guy. He was in an alley between a couple of buildings but no where close to the section of town where he had been before.
Four hours and twenty-six minutes later we finally made it home with the completed pair of shoes!