Well, I have done it! I have tarnished the reputations of Canadians in the bush. Don’t worry, as a typical Canadian I have fessed up and all is well! The crime I committed – lugging my bright red pillow around!

Let me first start with the fact that the chairs in the conference centre are extremely uncomfortable for sitting in for 8 to 9 hours every day. Add in the fact that my king size bed is liberally littered with pillows of varying sizes and shapes. There is only one conclusion that a sensible person can come up with….take a pillow with you to the conference room.

Thus, I could be seen coming and going from my room every morning and evening with lovely red pillow. I do love red! The pillow was the perfect size and shape to give me some relief of sitting on the chair. However, I do have to admit that I felt very much like Linus carrying my blanket around. Regardless of my ego it did the job when it wasn’t unexpectantly popping out from behind me and shooting off to either my left or right side. Fortunately no one was harmed by my flying projectile.

The problem came the first day that I absconded with the pillow. When I returned to my room after the day’s work was done, I walked into a room with a bed and NO pillows except the two sleeping pillows. One could only deduce that my room had be stripped of all decorative pillows in response to the missing one!

Mourning the loss of my pillows and feeling as if my reputation was suffering a terrible blow, along with concern that Ministries of Health and Local Government would be notified of the pillow thief within their midst, made a hasty trip to the reception desk. There was no way that was willing to risk an international incident involving at least two governments, if not three as we are exactly on the border of South Africa.

Arriving at the reception desk I quickly explained that I had returned to my room and found my pillows gone. The lovely receptionist immediately assumed that I was reporting a pillow theft. It took me a couple of minutes to explain to her that no, in fact I was the pillow thief not someone else. Due to me absconding with the pretty red pillow, I had no doubt that the housekeeping staff were inflicting preventive theft measures to keep me from walking off with the remaining decorative pillows. The receptionist was soon reassuring me that she would speak with the housekeeping staff and assure them that in fact I was not stealing the pillows but utilizing them for my comfort during the day.

By the time that I returned to my room after eating dinner every single one of my pretty pillows were back in their place on the bed! Fortunately, an international pillow incident was avoided and all were happy!