The Kindness of Strangers

But sometimes, in the most desperate of situations, help comes from the ones you don’t know — from the ones you’ve never known — and it’s almost enough to renew your faith in humanity again. Here are 13 stories from folks around town, and here’s to spreading that goodness around

Rojin John

I was on my way back from Venice to Modena in Italy (where my hotel was situated) and it was around 9pm. I had asked the hotel to send a taxi to the train station. It was pitch dark when I reached but the taxi wasn’t there. My phone battery had died and the hotel was at least 30 minutes away by car. I asked fellow passengers from the train if I could borrow their phone to call the hotel but they just looked at me strangely or ignored me. All of a sudden, two young men, dressed in hoodies, came up to me and asked me something in Italian. I asked if I could borrow their phone and showed them the hotel’s visiting card. They just said, “Si, si! Andiamo, andiamo!” I didn’t understand a word — but the next thing I knew, they had called a taxi, jumped in and told me to get in. I was trying to put up a brave front, sitting with three unknown men, staring out of the window during the ride, while actually I was rebuking myself for not valuing life more and worrying if one of my kidneys would be sold that night… After 30 minutes though, I saw the familiar street and the hotel. They dropped me off in front and, when I asked them how much I had to pay, they just scoffed and drove off without another word. It really got me thinking: how the people that refused to help were dressed so well, while these lads, dressed in jeans, caps and hoodies, were the ones you would least expect to get a free ride back from. They became one of the reasons I’ve started studying Italian though. ‘Andiamo’, by the way, means ‘Let’s go!’

Fiona Hepher

The idea of a stranger has an ‘intimidating’ connotation today, considering we were all taught, growing up, not to talk to strangers. But, in fact, I’m sure we’ve all had an out-of-the-ordinary experience from a face we don’t have a name for. My personal one would be when our landlord was attempting to fine us Dh50,000 for having used the wrong materials to build the dividing walls between us and our new neighbours at work. The job was done by a contractor who had subsequently closed the company down since finishing our job. Our options were looking void, until our neighbour decided he’d help us by building new dividing walls, and sorting out all the paperwork for us to get the approvals. I barely had to lift a finger! And he just did it out of kindness. The man’s name is Khalifa and he is now our friend!

Farah Zoghbi

I will never forget the time I lost my bag on a flight to Geneva. I was crying because all my stuff was in it — and I literally had nothing else. I was travelling alone for the weekend to attend a wedding — and the mishap left me with just two hours to buy toiletries, make up, shoes, a dress and a thicker jacket (it was cold and everything was in my luggage) before I had to catch the train to Bern. It was a Friday so all shops closed at 7pm. Plus, the customer service agents were being completely unsympathetic and offering no compensation so it was very frustrating. A couple heard me crying and offered to lend me clothes that I could return on the way back. They also invited me to their place so I could take something from their daughter, if 
I wished. I just thought that was the nicest thing. It wasn’t creepy — just really genuine. They could see I was upset and trying to communicate in French and English to make the customer service agents understand. I didn’t take anything from them but the way they were comforting me is something I will never forget.

Ancy Alexander

I once found a cab after walking some distance and the elderly cab driver was moved by the way I walk. He asked about my condition, its treatment etc. When I reached my destination, he refused to take the cab fare from me. When I insisted, he absolutely refused and asked if I would pay my dad for dropping me somewhere. I tried telling him that it was kind of him to say so and tried paying, but he still would not accept the fare. He gave me his blessings before I got off and drove away. Another time I was struggling to find a cab after work and there was a gentleman who was suffering the same plight. After waiting for over 45 minutes, we got chatting and decided to walk further ahead to find cabs. We walked for over an hour in vain till a cab finally stopped for us. We decided to share it. The gentleman had to go in a direction entirely opposite to mine, but he dropped me off outside my building and went on to his destination and would not hear of letting me pay the fare.

Cynthia Villanueva

After the birth of my son, there were times when I had a few extremely stressful moments, similar to those that occur during postnatal depression (PND). There was a lady who reached out to me at that time. She wasn’t a total stranger, since she is friends with my husband — but I also didn’t really know her at all back then. She knew of my plight because I would keep posting about it on Facebook — and she went out of her way to give me advice to help me cope when things got rough. She even came to our house one time to bring me food because she knew I was finding cooking too much of an exercise to do in those days — she knew because she had experienced PND herself. She knew it wasn’t easy. I was just so grateful that someone understood what I was going through that time. She is now in the UK with her family and though we are no longer strangers, I cannot forget the way she reached out to me in my hour of need.

Taghreed Oraibi

I encountered a situation once when I thought of asking a stranger (who was leaving the parking next to me) for directions — just to reassure myself that the ones I had in mind were correct. (GPS machines sometimes take you the long route so I thought asking a human being instead of a machine would be useful!) The guy I asked, however, insisted on leading the way to the place while I followed in my car. At first, I was hesitant and thought the gesture had a hidden agenda behind it. But I thought: “What’s the worst that can happen? I’ll just drive away if I feel uncomfortable or if he attempts to drive through a deserted road.” Turned out itjust a kind act. The minute we arrived at my destination, he waved goodbye and drove off. I guess not everyone is hesitant to help a stranger… I remember my father once did a great act of kindness when he found out (randomly) from one of his employees that a certain Egy-ptian guy was in prison due to debt. He spread the word amongst friends and colleagues and gathered the amount required to pay the man’s debts and get him out of jail. My father never knew this guy. He just felt responsible to help a fellow countryman living in a foreign country on his own.

Barbaranne Heaton

My husband and I went to the store the other night with our one-year-old. We got to the trolleys, only to realise neither of us had a dirham to get a trolley. We were just about to leave when a guy (doing his own shopping and needing a trolley) handed us a trolley that he had put a coin in for us. In the same moment, another lady carrying a baby also offered us a coin for the trolleys. It seems a really small thing but I was so amazed that these two people minding their own business had even noticed that we were struggling and kindly offered to help. I’ve been in the Middle East for six years and I’ve always been humbled by the number of people that will go out of their way to help you… Like when you’re locked out of your house! I was five months pregnant at the time — and in my pyjamas. I’d taken the bin out in the morning and the door locked behind me. No phone, no keys… I sat there for half an hour before a security guard cycled past on his bike. Then a couple of labourers came over to have a look! They let me use their phone to call Nakheel to see if they had a spare key but I couldn’t get through. They’d gone to the trouble of getting some credit transferred over to their phone just so I could use it. Eventually, the security guard came back with another labourer, who had all the tools needed to break into my house. They had to take my door off! Bless them — it was so embarrassing!

Nerry Toledo

I always believe it’s the simple acts of kindness that can change your life. We should always treat people the same way we would like to be treated, as we never know what the future holds. My experience is very simple — but it touched my heart. I’d spent a week travelling alone in Georgia, and it was a beautiful experience, because people there are so grounded. During one of my trips around the city, I saw a very old lady (she looked homeless to me) trapped on one side of the metal barrier leading to the metro station. I couldn’t just watch her struggle so I walked fast towards her to help. She looked at me, after, with gleaming eyes and slowly shuffled away. I continued my journey, and soon stopped in an old alley store to buy a bottle of water (that costs 0.50 lari). I only had 20 lari (US$ 12) on me, and the shop didn’t have change. I was struggling with the currency, when a lady in the shop helped me sort out my coins, gave me a 0.20 coin to complete the change, and said, “Welcome to Georgia.” I guess it’s as they say, “What goes around comes around”.

Nasreen Abdulla

I once saw an Arab lady at a mosque using a special kind of seat to read the Quran. I thought it would be a great thing for my grandmother as she was having trouble sitting for too long. So I went and asked her where she had bought it from. She insisted on giving me the seat as a gift and did not let up until I accepted. I was totally stumped. It was a special seat, which the lady had got from someplace in Mecca, and I am sure it would have cost quite a lot. But to give it to me like that… was quite humbling. I’ve had other great experiences too: a Pakistani labourer giving a very pregnant me his seat on the Metro that was so packed, it was almost like one person had to exhale in order for another to inhale — you could barely move. And in that rush, to notice me, get up and offer that seat… there was a lot of respect in that gesture.

Khaled Abu Hishme

This happened during a camping trip with two friends back home in Lebanon. It was about midnight when we decided to head back home, when we discovered that our car battery had died. To top it off, our cell phone batteries were dead too! It was winter so dark had fallen by about 6pm. The weather was pretty bad too: it was extremely windy and snowing too. Looking back, we were probably crazy to go camping there when we did, as people usually go during springtime. So basically there was no one we could find — or even, hope to find — at that time of the season — and we were about 50 km from home. That’s when an old man came to our rescue. He owns a small convenience store (for hikers and visitors to that area) and he was on his way there to pick up some wood for his chimney when he found us! He and his wife insisted we stay with them for the night: we slept in their living room on a big mattress and the couch, the house was warm and they invited us for dinner (somehow, food tastes so much better in the villages — organic and fresh!). We weren’t worried because, usually, old people in Lebanon are kind and generous — especially the ones residing in villages and rural areas; they are known to be as such. So we stayed the night and, in the morning, they arranged to recharge our car’s battery!

Nikki

There is an incident that really touched me a few years back when I was still looking for work. A friend of a friend (who is practically a stranger to me) was asked to take me to different job interviews as he had some free time on his hands. When he realised after a few trips that I actually had close to nothing, he offered to lend me Dh500, just to help me go about my job hunt. Ashamed but thankful, I accepted. And on receiving my first salary, not only did I pay it off, I gave him a treat for his kind gesture. We do not belong to the same nationality, and we know how sometimes, things go all wrong (with assumptions and some taking advantage in one way or another). But I believe now that it is with trying to open yourself in giving or accepting kindness that you allow blessings and pleasant surprises to come in your life.

Gehan Sidky

It was Christmas 2009. I was travelling from Cairo to Miami via New York to spend Christmas with the family at my brother’s. As the flight was delayed at departure, I missed my connecting flight and was given a voucher by the airline to spend the night at a hotel in the Queens district (in other words: the middle of nowhere, where it was freezing and pouring rain). By the time I reached the hotel, exhausted, it was 2am and the receptionist wouldn’t let me check in, as they had no availability. The airline had issued more vouchers than the number of rooms available. Next to me was an Egyptian lady in her mid-20s, pregnant and with a two-year-old daughter; she seemed sweet and was in the exact situation as me. The receptionist informed us there was a room available for $150 in a small hotel next door and the nice lady offered to share that room with me so that we could split the cost. In our situation (wet and cold in the dead of the night), it was comforting to find a nice stranger. My mother too tells of how she often arrives at a parking lot and goes to get a ticket, only to have someone who is leaving the lot hand her his/her valid ticket with enough time on it so that she doesn’t have to buy one.

Meredith Taylor-Damouni

When I first moved to Dubai eight years ago, I lost my son in a shopping centre. He was only four at the time and had wandered away. It was strangers that helped us find him and, honestly, I don’t think that he was even aware that he was in any danger whatsoever. While I was running around and going to security, a very kind supermarket packing assistant had taken my son to the front of the shop where he had gone missing to see if they could find me. He was playing a game with my son so that he didn’t panic. My husband who was at home at the time — without a car — was also helped by a kind stranger, who randomly gave him a lift to the shopping centre to get there as fast as possible, as I had rung him in an absolute panic. Within 10 minutes, my husband was with me, and my son safely returned — both from random acts of kindness. I think there is a lot of goodwill in Dubai and though many of us are from different places, it’s nice to feel like we can all depend on each other.

As told to Karen Ann Monsy