An Unexpected Act of Kindness That Changed My Day

^{Original Image Source: Ron Lach}

I never expected such kindness which I received last week from someone I just met within a few minutes in church, and that was a gratifying act done to me. I believe there are kind people out there and my encounter with that one touched me so deeply. I was blown away.

I was returning from another city where I went to write an exam for the teaching application sent out by the state government I am presently doing my Youth Service. While on the bus, I was unhappy with what happened to me the day before.

I had transferred less than $4 (#5000) for my transport to some group of people who wanted to help all the participants who were going for the same examination and they provided some buses to take us to the venue, they promised to wait for us to finish and bring us back home, this to me was a perfect idea instead of going to the garage and probably waiting for hours before other passengers would get filled up. It was also a stress-free one and most importantly, reduced the cost of transportation.

I transferred the money in the hope that I would go on the bus the next day but I missed them because when I got to the location where we were told to meet, they had gone which then made me take another bus and pay another money which was $4 (#6000), different from the first people. On my way to the exam, I texted the person I had transferred my money to and informed her of how I had missed the bus and requested a refund since I didn't go with them.

I was told to be patient for a while. After I had waited for hours, I sent them another text reminding them about the refund, in case they'd forgotten, I got a shocking response from one of them that there was no refund again as anyone who missed the bus had lost the money.

I became perplexed by such a statement and I wonder how people could be callous and greedy when it comes to money. I am sure I wasn't the only one who missed the bus that day and what happened to me also happened to them of which the money paid was gone. I couldn't believe people could take advantage of the ongoing examination and cheat on others because of their selfish interests. They wanted to help but it turned out that some of their agenda was to take what didn't belong to them.

^{Image is mine}

While on the bus, a part of me was willing to forget the money while accepting my fate because no matter what, there was nothing I could do as the transaction was done via WhatsApp and I didn't know their office where I could go to report them. Another part of me was trying to hold on to the money while regretting my quick action in paying instead of being patient to see how things unfold the next day. My mind was like "Had it been the money was still with me, I could have used it for something else".

After having lots of different thoughts which was affecting my emotions, I decided to let go completely and learn from my lessons. I calculated the money left in my account and thought of getting something once I get down from the bus because it was already in the evening and getting home, I would be too tired to prepare something, the solution was to get food at the restaurant close to my house.

As I got down and entered the restaurant, I sighted the lady from church the Sunday that preceded the main day, after greeting each other, I stepped forward to order my meal. I calculated all that I got and it was $4.2 (#6300), this lady showed her kindness by paying half of the bills and I added the remaining balance. The interesting part was how she told the attendant to add more food and meats to my meal which she promised to pay for.

I was surprised by such a kind gesture from her because she is someone I got to know after Sunday School service and only talked for 3 minutes. It was that day I knew she was having the same examination which hers fell on the next day which was Monday.

As I walked back home that day with my order and a small bag, I couldn't stop thinking about what had happened and was smiling within me. This was an unexpected encounter and kindness that I received and while I was eating the meal, my mind kept praying for her. Such generosity, to me, is rare because I can't remember when last I got such treatment from a lady. Hahaha 😀