Conference Life.
Most anyone serving in this organization who has attended a conference or two could probably relate to this experience.
The oh-too-familiar scene of first meeting the roommates.
Arrived around midnight at the hotel.
Checked in and was told that my friends were already checked in and in the room.
"My friends?" I asked.
"Yes, the two women are already there. They have the keys," replied the friendly check-in guy.
I asked for their names. Neither sounded familiar to me.
So, I figured that they were my assigned roommates for the week so I headed over to the room.
I was hesitant thinking... "Who would open the door at this hour to a stranger?"
I arrived at the room and rang the bell... once... twice... three times.
"Oh this is horrible. They're legitimately asleep ... I don't want to wake them up."
So I went back down to the desk and asked if there was another set of keys that I could have to let myself in.
"We have two sets, ma'am and they were given to the first two parties."
"Great," I thought.
So the man gets the master key and a security man to let me in the room.
We make the walk back to the building, up the escalator to the 3rd floor and over to the room.
Security man rings the bell... once...twice...KNOCK...KNOCK..."Security."
He put the key in the lock, turned the knob... URGH!
Swinging door latch.
Denied.
All I want is a bed and a good night's sleep.
I was starting to picture myself camped out in the lobby for the night.
I reason with the guy -- "Who is going to open the door at this hour?"
But he persisted.
After more knocks... more rings... and more calling out "Security," a set of eyes peeked out of the slit between to door and the door jam.
He tells the woman, "Your friend," and motions in my direction.
Surely she thought the same thing I did, "My friend?" Hahah.
So I stepped in line of view and told her..."Hi. (head down in embarrassment) I'm assigned to stay in this room with you for the WWSE conference."
And with that, the door was shut, the door latch swung open and I got to meet my new friends.
They had no idea that there was going to be a third roommate assigned to the room. So they locked up and went to sleep. And I woke them from their much deserved sleep.
After having travelled overnight from Port Morsby, Papua New Guinea, the last thing they needed was some girl waking them up in the middle of the night to let her in. But, I'm grateful they did wake up ... and they welcomed me so graciously. What kind, gracious, new friends!!!
I'm looking forward to getting to know these new friends from PNG, serving with BTA (Bible Translation Association).
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I had that happen to me once at a conference in Am Area conference in Panama, except in reverse. Noone told me that I was going to have a roommate, until I walked into the room one afternoon and someone else's stuff was in there. That was a little freaky, and like you it also required a trip to the front desk to figure out what was going on.