Adventure on the Canal

Last Friday we had a friend and his two young sons over for dinner. The riding mower won't start, and since our friend used to work on a nuclear sub, David figured he might be able to help with the mower. (Logical, n'est-ce pas?) While David and Scott examined the bad boy, Grandmother and I took the two little boys down to the canal to see if any barges were going by. There was one tied up at the landing near our house and we saw a man walking on it. As we strolled by, I greeted him and he me in French, and then he looked at the two little boys and asked, in what I initially thought was Dutch, "Do you want to be sailors?" I translated into English for the kids, and then he said to me, in very real German, "I don't speak French." I asked him (in German) if he was German, but it turns out he's from the Czech Republic. We had a friendly little conversation in German about the lack of shopping opportunities in Hautrage and how far it was to the next town (too far to walk). He told me that because he grew up in the Czech Republic, he also speaks Russian. Then he said "I speak a little English." Turns out he understands more than he speaks, as do most of us.

I felt like I should have brought David down there to meet him because the poor guy was obviously bored and lonely, as his colleague was off somewhere with the car. Maybe next time he comes through we'll go knock on his porthole and offer him a beer.