HUMAN ANGELS ARE FOR REAL

       

My red raincoat still being worn when the sun went up hence terrified the clouds. The darkness cracked and replaced by morning light. I detached my raincoat. Not so long ago, five minutes approximately, rain showered ome and all these people who were awaiting for their return. A little bit longer ago, by dawn I already left my hostel in Rome, then headed to Termini station to take a Metro that was possibly the very first metro to run. Get off of the Metro, I continued walking to St. Peter's Basilica.  It was around 6 am when I joined the queue in front of St. Peter square and the day was a little gloomy which shortly followed by rain falls. Most people seemed to have been anticipating the unpredictable weather of European autumn as they were armed with either raincoats or umbrellas. For those who weren't, they could always purchase raincoats from some peddlers for €5 each.

As for me, my raincoat had been a long way traveling. Started 4 days ago when I took a 18-hours flight from Jakarta to Paris. I spent 2 days there where my raincoat did its first job due to Paris's rain fall on my way to Louvre. The day after, I left Paris for Rome, a 1-hour flight. Rome was my main intention as Vatican City was on my top list. So not long after arriving in Rome, I continued to explore Vatican. It was in St. Peter Basilica where I heard about Pope Francis's audience tomorrow morning at 8 am. So here the story went from dawn the following day.

I thought I had mastered a full understanding : time of Pope's audiences, route of getting there from Rome by public transport, early bird attendance, and of course, my red raincoat in my backpack to get myself ready for European autumn elements that I never got used before in Indonesia. And yes, I was doing it pretty good –especially when dealing with Vatican's weather that morning from gloomy, rainy, a little sunny, rainy; as I told you : I was touring Europe with my red raincoat bought in Jakarta and charged me only around €0.5- until I listened from people around talking about 10.30. 10.30 what?

"The general audience will be started on 10.30, dear," a lady who worn a green raincoat -aged around 70 years old but looking fantastically fit and healthy- telling me. Later on I knew that she, Maryann, and her 2 friends were from Pennsylvania of the USA and had been attending the audience for 3 times now. They were standing beside me that I could hear they chatted about time of Pope's audience and thus I asked them.

"Not by 8?" I replied, noticed it was only 7.30 and wondering if I could stand in the queue for 2 more hours.

She said by ten, Pope would come out and went around the attendees to meet and greet with people. Oh, okay, I must be mistaken in noticing time. But I went, "How do you know it would be 10.30?" There were possibilities of Maryann didn't get it correctly, right?

"Oh, all is in here," she showed me a small brownish-colored paper. "It says so. 10.30."

"Then what is that?" I did not know what paper she had in hand. She said it was an invitation paper. Invitation what?

"To join the audience, dear. You should ask from your diocese," Adele, one of Maryann's pals, answered. Wait, did she just say that an invitation paper was needed? I did not even know that invitation papers were existed!

Wow, that would be a little too much of surprise. Had I made 2 mistakes at once : wrong timing and not to own an invitation paper? After all these miles I had traveled to be in Vatican, then I found myself could not enter St. Peter's square to attend Pope's audience due to not knowing that an invitation paper was required? How smart! In a frustrate situation, was being rude and sarcastic to myself.

The three strangers -who quickly became new friends of mine- were surprised when knowing I had traveled half globe without having a knowledge of when Pope's audience would be held and how to take part in it. The queue was quit long, much longer than the time I had arrived, most possibly thousands of people were here. The supervisors must have plenty things to do with all these people. So maybe I could just go through without them realizing that I didn't even have an invitation paper? Was that possible? Or should I just gave up and walked away; frustrating about myself for being so worse-prepared? I really wanted to cry.

"Hey, I think I have something," Adele digging her purse, looking for something. "You know what, I have asked for 3 invitations for the three of us. But my Pastor gave me more than the numbers we required. I once thought we wouldn't need this many papers, but still; I keep it, somehow. So, here it is. Your invitation paper."

Adele handed me that brownish-colored small paper with a big smile. I received it with an indescribable feeling : surprised, amazed, moved, all mixed up. The small brownish-colored invitation paper, that had all words in Italian, was my entry card to Pope Francis's audience that day. Not only I could attend the audience, I also didn't need to stand  in the queue for long since by 8 we could enter the square and I'd got a seat in row with my three human angels. And not to mention, seeing Pope Francis in person. How awesome was that? Beyond words, I say.

Traveling to eight European countries in two weeks, not only made me a stranger who met the gringos yet got to set myself feeling comfortable with the unfamiliar, it was also led me to a new perspective of having a little faith in the strangers. Not only Maryann, Adele and Emily, I also had met some angelic strangers. In Charles Bridge of Prague, a Catholic nun, seemed to be just appeared from the crowd when I thought would have failed finding someone to take pictures of me. Most people were too busy with themselves, the area was too crowded with people and I could not find anyone around who was available to help someone other than themselves. Until she came up alone, standing right after me. She didn't speak English but somehow we could communicate and she took pretty good pictures of me. In Prague Castle, among the crowd I met a female solo traveler from Thailand, and we took pictures of each other. People from here and there who showed me directions, train routes, getting tickets by machines, generously giving price at discounts, allowing a total stranger me to use their rest rooms, and many more.

They, human angels, are for real.