Social Magnet

I decided to go down to El Roie, the restaurant in my hotel, for lunch. As
I headed through the door, I looked to my right and saw P, a friend of
mine from Japan who is working in Addis for a year. I had been thinking
of calling him to see if he wanted to get together for coffee this
weekend, so it was almost as if the universe decided to arrange it on my
behalf. P was having lunch with a colleague of his, and they asked me to
join them, so I did. Moments later two Italian guys entered the
restaurant and upon seeing P announced their pleasant surprise and
everyone shook hands. Five minutes later an Ethiopian guy walked in and
said what a surprise it was to run into P here. This reminded me of last
October when P met me at the lobby of my hotel to go out to dinner; he
happened to be old friends with the night manager, who happens to be the
day manager at the Hilton. Nevertheless, P is quite the amiable guy and
has been coming to Ethiopia for the past 20-plus years, so maybe it's no
surprise that he is somewhat of a social magnet here.