I've come to Africa for all the many things it offers: culture, wildlife, political and social instability, the World Cup and landscapes of all varieties. But perhaps the biggest reason I am here is Matt Smith. This multifaceted, scintillating, slave-dug diamond of a man has carved the path to East Africa that I now walk. For any who do not know him, he was eloquently summed up by the driver he had pick me up at the Kigali Airport.
“Matt is like a father to me,” the driver said (Matt is 28). “Yes, Matt is my father. He has taught me a great deal.”
See? He is a father to other grown men. His canonization is but a short time away.
When I asked him about his new-found fatherhood, Matt replied, “Man, that guy is so full of shit. I mean, completely full of bullshit. If he's my son, I did an awful job of raising him.”
It is in such modesty that Matt Smith shows his innate wisdom and his knowledge of the world and the men who populate it. A humble man from a hamlet in the wild hills of Central Texas, now a shining light in the heart of the dark continent.
Friday, May 28, 2010
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