This year has been fantastic with a lot of value and a lot of lessons learned. I must declare that God has been faithful throughout the year.
This year, despite it being difficult, I managed to finish one major road project.
I have been making an effort to be a nice guy everywhere I am, whether it's on a job site or in a gathering, but this year I have discovered that being kind is incredibly beneficial.
This year, I worked on a project in a challenging environment. They had strong cultist activities, had little regard for human life, and would engage in day or night fighting. The police wouldn't arrive until the commotion had calmed.
Even though it was a government-sponsored project and my company was hired to complete it, the hoodlums chased everyone off the site when the project first began. The bad guys asked our company for a substantial sum of money, around $1500, but my employer negotiated to $500.
Although my company was supposed not to pay any fee to the area boys, we were told that it was a norm to pay the area boys fee, or else they won't allow us to do the project.
This is not new to me, but there are moments when I wonder if it's usual for some people to ask for money before development in their community starts. This demonstrates how terrible boys have contaminated our neighbourhood.
We were unable to begin the job, but the CDA chairman of the neighbourhood, the honourable, and some powerful individuals in the community met with the boys and were able to negotiate a price reduction of $400, which was split between the two bad guys groups.
After the local boys were paid, the work started. As soon as it did, I started being kind to everyone in the community, not just financially but also by saying nice things to them. I also motivated those who would be affected by the road construction.
My boss was not happy with this because he has a different personality, he only connects with a selected group of people, and he uses harsh language.
Every time he visited the site, the boys would argue with him and threaten him. However, as soon as I arrived at the spot, I would speak to the boys, and the situation would immediately become more peaceful. They paid attention to me since I spoke to them gently while I was on the job site and occasionally I bought drinks for them. They valued all the small favours I did for them, which increased their regard for me and benefited the project.
The elders in the community informed me that their previous project could not be finished because the site Engineer was hurt in the community.
How I Saved My Boss With My
Kindness
On this day, there was a fight between the boys in the community, they blocked everywhere, the fight was very serious, and they were shooting heavily. All shops and houses have been closed, and everyone on site has fled. My boss told me in the morning that he won't be able to show up at the site, so I was not expecting him. I ran for my life as well, I was just thinking about giving him a report about what was going on at the site when I received a call that my boss was under attack and that I should come over to the scene, the caller told me where he was attacked.
When I arrived at the scene, it was at the entrance to the construction site. My boss's side mirrors had been broken, and he was being held, hostage. He couldn't get out of the car because the boys might have hurt him if he had.
Fortunately, their leader was present, and I begged him to release my employer, insisting that he was unaware of the chaos raging in the community.
The leader of the bad boys turned to face my boss, telling him to be grateful to me because I have shown kindness to them since the project commenced.
Otherwise, they would have taught him a lesson that would have changed his entire life. The leader went on to say that ever since he started visiting the site, he has always frowned at them and occasionally insulted them, telling them that they are not leading good lives and will soon rot in prison.
I learned a lot from this incident that I should keep up with being kind, even if it doesn't pay at the moment, it will pay later. This has been a great lesson of the year for me.
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