I was walking back to my apartment from work last week and as I was walking past a copy place a few blocks from the office, I heard a woman say in loud, American English, "We are completely lost, you have to help us."

She wasn't talking to me, but I glanced into the copy place and saw a blank stare on the face of the worker in the store. I paused at the door, asked the man if he spoke English (in Spanish). He shook his head and I turned to the woman to offer assistance.

She was completely frazzled, but completely appreciative. She was a middle-aged woman with curly, gray hair as frazzled as she was. She handed me the map in her hand and said, "My husband and I are totally lost and the car doesn't go in reverse." I wasn't sure how I could help with the second part of the statement, but I asked her where she was trying to go.

I've only been in Oaxaca a little over a month and I didn't know where she was trying to get to. I admitted this and she said she had the phone number of the guy they were staying with. I looked at the phone number and felt like it was missing 2 or 3 digits. I decided to hope the missing digits were the cell phone area code in Oaxaca and dialed the number. I got through and got directions from the Oaxacan they were staying with.

It turned out they were only about 10 blocks from where they wanted to go, but the center of Oaxaca is all one way streets and a parade was forming at the cross street where they had stopped.

I started to give the woman directions and she stopped me and told me to tell her husband. I walked to the driver side of their car and leaned down with the map to give him directions. He was also middle-aged with a big, scraggly, gray beard. If his beard was any indication, he was even more frazzled and stressed than she was.

He repeated her earlier statement that the card had no reverse. Once again, I wasn't sure how I could help with that. I started to give him the directions and showed him on the map, but he just sort of stared at me with bewilderment in his eyes. It was only ten blocks, I wasn't in a rush, so I stopped and said, "Would you like me to go with you?"

The husband and wife both agreed quickly and I hopped in the back seat. As I was getting in, I thought about kidnappings, muggings, and tales of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong, but they were just too stressed for me to believe this was the perfectly concocted kidnapping scheme that it would have to be. Also, there was a cane on the back seat and I figured I could outrun them. When the husband started to drive, I realized I could probably outrun them even if they stayed in the car and I was on foot.

I guided them to their destination and they thanked me profusely. They offered to take me out to dinner, but I had plans for the night, so I gave them my cell phone number and told them to call me. They still haven't called me. When's dinner?