A day of travelling without going anywhere

So there I am sat in the church cafe trying to cancel the smoke alarm which is causing small people to look worried and adults somewhat bizarrely to laugh. It was fairly obvious that the smoke filling the cafe and triggering the smoke alarm was caused by the teenagers in the kitchen setting fire to toast: the youth of today etc etc.
Anyhow there I am sat in the church cafe with an old friend Tony talking about his thirty years of another life really, helping the communities of Yemen to regenerate. It feels really strange, I knew of this other existance but never knew what a double life he had. So we are talking and planning because this summer he is going to take me to his other world. This is exciting, what an adventure to travel to this very different culture. It is also a bit worrying, apparently the Arab word for guest is the same as their word for kidnap!
Came home to find three lovely Muslim ladies visiting my wife from her school. We laughed alot at our different cultures but found more often than not we found how similar we were. One talked about how difficult is was in some areas for the Muslims to get involved in regeneration because some of their leaders didn't want to get involved or who only wanted to help their community (muslims) and not their community (everybody else.) Yet again I thought this is so like my own faith.
Happily the three Muslim ladies were demonstrating there take on community by treating my wife and me as people they cared about.
Maybe this will be so in all parts of the world, I look forward to finding out.