A little kindness goes a long way. I was eating in a resturant when a strange man walked up to me. He looked so excited to see me but I had never seen this guy in my life so I was confused then he brought out something that looked very familiar. My heart immediately leaped.
This thread is a story of two unrelated events that happened to me and is a reminder on why I’ll always be on the side of kindness.
So back to this strange man. He didn’t speak a word of English but I immediately recognized what was in his hand. It was my wallet. It had $700 instead of it, all my bank cards and various currencies I kept at souvenirs from people i’ve met all over the world. The shocking part?
I didn’t even know the wallet was missing. I was eating not knowing I had no means to pay. Turns out when I came down from a taxi, my wallet dropped. He was selling something by the road side, found it and started walking into every resturant on that street looking for me.
My ID card was in there and he could tell I was black (this was translated for me) and since black people aren’t a regular occurrence in these parts, he was walking into every establishment, showing them my ID & asking if I came in there.
I had in fact entered one store to admire a dress so the owner told him where she saw me enter. That’s how he finally found me. Everything in my wallet was intact. I was so grateful, that I gave him $100 but I knew even that wasn’t enough for the trouble he had saved me.
He rejected the money at first and I had to politely insist.
Later that night, I went out. Called an Uber & started gisting with the Uber driver. It was 1am so I asked him if he was working all night. He told me he was because his son needs a new game console.
the game console costs $15 & previously he needed to make only 2 trips to make $15 in a night but because of the current devaluation in Lebanon, he now had to make about 5-6 trips in other to make $15-20. So yeah he was working all night as he wanted to get this for his son.
He showed me his previous trips from that night. Average of $2. My heart sank. After he dropped me off, he apologized and told me in broken English “i’m sorry I poured my heart to you”. I told him it was fine and reminded him that I initiated the conversation.
When I asked him how much my trip was, it was about $2.5. I opened my wallet and gave him the money for the trip and then an extra $20. I told him it was my contribution to the game console. He just stayed parked for a few seconds and then said “now I can go home”.
It was when I got in, I realized that the kindness the strange man who found and returned my wallet started a chain.
A little kindness goes a long way. Good night
forgive all typos 😩
also this is not a call out but @Uber please consider adjusting the rates of rides in Lebanon. The current prices are not even close to a reflection of the massive devaluation that has occurred 🙏🏽
Once i found this out, I started paying around double of whatever the charge was
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I shared pictures from our Culture Sunday in Osun and then got this in my mentions. The serendipitous part of this was that we had planned to go to Badagry that week so I sent a DM
I reached out and spoke about what we wanted to see and @JuwonJesus was kind enough to provide some direction on how best to explore Badagry on such short notice. My friends were really interested in the Atlantic Slave history part of things so we mapped out an itinerary
Juwon is a native of Badagry and his family is one of the royal families of the town. Infact, our first stop was a museum set up by the family’s patriarch.
on my flight, I was sat beside two kids. The hostess came up to me and asked if i could do her a favour. She said, the kids (8 & 12) were traveling alone and if I could please watch them especially when we touch down. The plan was to hand them over to ground staff.
my travel partner was seated in front of me (i only ended up on that roll because check-in desk failed to seat us together). My partner chuckled when they overheard the conversation and offered to switch seats with me. They love kids. Me i’m usually so-so
As in I like kids but i usually won’t go out of my way to interact with a stranger’s child except the kid is awesome vibes and they initiate the interaction. Anyway, i told the hostess it was fine. I smile at them. My plan was to sleep most of the flight & we ignore each other
Just to let you know that Korean pseudoreligious cult are now in Nigeria and are actively recruiting Nigerians. They lure folks through “experience Korean culture” packages that look harmless on the surface. In October, I meant someone in Lagos who was a victim.
I’ll briefly mention what she told us. First of all, I met her bcos we were playing k-pop quite loudly and she came to knock on the door. I assumed it was a neighbor coming to tell us to keep it down. But it turns out she is a k-pop nerd so she was excited to hear familiar sound
We immediately hit it off and I mentioned I was just coming from Korea. She then told us she was in Seoul earlier in the year. I lit up & started asking her if she also did some of the things I did. Her answer to most was no. And then she got quiet for a bit ..
As promised, here’s a thread on how to get a visa to the Republic of Korea from Nigeria.
Overall verdit of the process: simple & straight forward.
Cost: N20k for a short term visa (less than 90k)
Timeline: 10 -15 working days (depending on how busy they are)
You can apply for the visa from either Lagos or Abuja. For Abuja, you’d need to book an appointment with VFS but for Lagos, you can do a walk-in. I chose to apply in Lagos.
You need the usual documents including proof of funds to show you can afford your trip. I’m not sure of the exact amount but enough to cover your airfare, accommodation and spending i presume. From my research accommodation is most places are relatively affordable.
A woman comes out to narrate her experience of rape. The alleged perpetrator is immediately defended by men to whom he is a stranger. These men do not care about the stranger, they care about a system that allows them to commit sexual violence against women unchecked.
if a person tells you they were robbed and even shows you signs of their bruises, would your first reaction be to look into whether all the lines in their story “add up” perfectly. No. It is done to women who speak up because they are trying to protect themselves too. Rapists
This woman showed pictures of her bruises and medical report, yet she is being told her story doesn’t “add up”. No, she was sexually assaulted in a hotel room she paid for, nothing about that adds up!