Further up and Further in

We went to Kandy this weekend (we're still in Sri Lanka), and we were given the task of retrieving the cell phone which our friend Jed lost in Kandy last week. A trishaw (autorickshaw/tuktuk) driver, Ranjith, had called Kara and she said he'd found it, so we spent some amount of time trying to find him. We finally managed to track him down at the botanical gardens on our way to church on Sunday. We asked him if he had Jed's phone with him and he said that it was at his house, so we told him to pick us up from church at 1pm and take us to the train station, and to bring the phone.

He picked us up from church, and we asked if he had the phone with him. He said that it was at his house. We asked how far away his house was, and he said that it was fifteen or twenty minutes, so we decided to go to his house first and then to the train station. He seemed okay with that and headed for his house. On the way, he asked us if we'd eaten. We told him not to worry about that, that we had a train to catch. But he still stopped on the way and bought some bananas and cake.

When we arrived at his house, he urged us to come inside and sit down and meet his family. The women all rushed off to the kitchen and Ranjith brought us the cake and bananas to eat. Then Kayc asked if he had the phone, and he jumped up and left the room and came back with a cell phone. The story gets really confusing here. The long and the short of it is that Ranjith and Kara had misunderstood one another. Jed's phone hadn't ever been found. The phone Ranjith brought us to look at was his own cell phone. And he was probably wondering what the heck these weird Americans were doing: asking to come to his house and see his cell phone!
We figured all this out just as his wife and daughters set the dining room table with enough food to feed their large family for two days--and only set two places at the table. We were ushered over to the table and Ranjith personally dished out huge portions of food onto our plates. Then the whole family--about fifteen people--sat in the living room and watched us eat.
The food was really tasty, but it was hard to eat while we were trying not to burst out laughing at the whole situation. We didn't want them to think we were laughing at their food or their home or their hospitality. Poor Ranjith must have been so confused:
"Did you bring the phone?"
"No, it's at my house."
"Oh, how far is your house?"
"About 15-20 minutes."
"Okay, we'll go there first, and then we'll go to the train station."
"To my house? You want to go to my house? Okay. Did you eat yet today?"
"No, but it's okay. We have a train to catch."
Ranjith to himself: "I wonder why they want to see my phone...I guess they want to come for dinner."

At his house: "Here, eat. You don't have to be to the train station until 2:30."
"Okay...so did you get the phone?"
Ranjith to himself: "Oh yeah...they wanted to see my phone. What's so special about my phone? Maybe they need a phone number for their friend..."

We laughed about it all the way back to Colombo.