The Joke

It was decided that Jannis and Jacob and a lay person would join Inga and her crew for lunch somewhere. We had seriously considered McDonalds to keep the price down, but suddenly Inga texted and said, “Ask Jannis where he wants to go.” So I did and mentioned it didn’t have to be fancy, and he gave me the name of an authentic Latvian restaurant and I passed it on to Inga. She arrived there before us and then sent me this message, “Eating big stakes. 55 Euro per person. U gave 100. We will need extra monie. This very fancy place. Very beautiful. You will love it.” My eyes were wide. Fifty-five euros per person??? That would be a total of almost 400 euros. I started feeling frustrated with the Methodist pastor for thinking we were “rich Americans”. I took a breath and messaged her back bravely, “Wow…I will bring more money.” She said, “We get desserts too.”  Man, I thought. Yesterday it was hard for her to receive funds…and now this normally extremely frugal woman is blowing money on a meal like it grows on trees…is this really happening? I fought more and more frustration at Jannis as we drove to the restaurant. When we got there I was confused. They hadn’t sat down at a table yet. They weren’t eating steaks. And it wasn’t a “55 euro a person restaurant”. Then Jordan said, “Did you catch the joke?” I was a deer in the headlights.  “What?” Inga went into peals of laughter. That was the hardest we saw her laugh the whole trip. She continued in fits of laughter as she recounted her joke in Latvian with Inarz who was with us. We all joined in on the laugh (and the relief) and I felt like our friendship must have reached a new high.