You never know who you'll meet in Shreveport

I meet all kinds of folks covering the crime beat. Many are interesting, but some are noteworthy.

Today I met three people who are from other countries but are staying in Shreveport. The fact that they have citizenship somewhere else is not that special. It's the countries they are from. I mean, it's not too tough for a Mexican or a Canadian to get here. And I've met people around here who are from the UK and China.

But Petrus Nene (top photo) and Christopher Pretorius (middle) are from South Africa, and Ola Moberg (bottom) is from Sweden. The three are here working for an international company that sprays special coatings onto various types of metal. Sounds kind of technical and scientific, huh? I have never met anyone from these nations.

Anyhow, these guys were fortunate or unfortunate enough to be interviewed by me today at the Super 8 Lodge on Monkhouse Drive, where a Suburban crashed through the front door. No, none of these guys was the driver.

It's so interesting to think that someone from one of these faraway places would find any kind of job here. But like everyone is saying, we're living in a global economy.

It's just funny to hear accents like theirs in Shreveport. Ola was trying to tell me the name of his hometown, which starts with a J, but sounds to me like a K. And, of course, it's always fascinating to see how the British influence has shown through for so long in the South African accent. (We won't even get into the other ways colonialism has affected that country in this post.)

They had only been here for three days, so it was tough to come up with a characterization of this place. But I hope the stay is a little more pleasant now that the SUV has been removed form the lobby.