The Roommate

Remember that Dane Cook skit about the “creepy guy” at work who always seems to follow you to the next place you go? Well for me, that guy’s name is Isaiah.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Isaiah appeared at my door with a suitcase in his hand. Nobody had told me that we were having a visitor this week, so I walked him up the road to Fr. Donnie’s house. When Fr. Donnie answered the door, he also glanced at Isaiah with a puzzled look on his face. They talked for a while in Sukuma until Fr. Donnie was finally able to kinda-sorta identify this guy. According to our new friend, Fr. Donnie had said Mass in Isaiah’s village many years ago (we’re talking decades!), given him his contact information, and invited him to stay in Ndolelelji. As we walked back to my residence, Fr. Donnie whispered to me, “I always invite people to come from far away, but I never thought anybody would actually take me up on the offer!”

Maybe it’s just me but this whole situation screamed sketchy! What grown man takes a 6 hour bus ride from his hometown of Shinyanga all the way to Nodolelelji, to accept an invitation that was allegedly provided to him during his childhood?!

Over the next couple days, Isaiah talked and talked…talked. He informed us that he was a Benedictine Monk. Fr. Dan and Fr. Donnie both seemed fascinated with this development, and spent a lot of time discussing it with him in Sukuma. However, he also mentioned that he had spent much of his life working as an electrician. I noticed that Fr. Michael possessed a far different demeanor from the moment that he met Isaiah. Fr. Michael appeared to be listening and concentrating a lot more than Fr. Donnie and Fr. Dan, which made me tend to suspect that there were holes in Isaiah’s story.

When I woke up this morning, Isaiah was gone. The priests aren’t sure why but they noticed that Isaiah caught the 6:30am bus out of here, as they were going to their morning prayer. Many questions will remain unanswered. Why did he arrive and subsequently depart without telling anyone? Is he really a Benedictine or is he an electrician? Or the most important question of all: Why did he steal a box of my Ritz crackers???