The Act of Kindness

In our crazy world today, I won't say "rare," but it's not too common to have those 'acts of kindness' by people. Sometimes when you hear on TV or the radio someone doing a good deed, you think, "awww... that's so nice," when really, it should be normal thing. I always remember my travels to 3rd world countries when people without even shoes offering me a little treat, or food, when I was on a local bus or train. I remember thinking, "wow, there really are good people out there" and "that would never happen back home." :-) 

Well, here in Dubai, I've had the fortune of coming across few of them. Yes, this is a place that people really look after themselves, no doubt about that, BUT you can get lucky, as I have.

1st, it was the couple I stayed with for um.... not one, not two, but a little more than 3 months (not to mention 6 weeks in the spring of 2011). I can talk about their generosity and kindness all day.

Then comes Kay and family. It's actually kind of a funny story. When I came in mid-April of last year, I remember, it was a Wednesday, the 1st thing on my agenda was to send a package back home to the US for my good friends birthday a couple of weeks later. Note to any traveler: Going to the post office anywhere can give you a glimpse of life in that country. The post office is obviously run by the government, hence locals work there (in the case of Dubai, that says a lot! That's a topic for another day), and ... we'll you'll see:

So I grab a ticket, which by the way, ANYWHERE you go in Dubai, there is a ticket stand, wait my turn, put my stuff on the counter and say.... as I have in all countries around the world, "I need to send this to United States." The guy looks at me, and in slllloooooooow motion (people as I learned, generally move sloooowly here), grabs a form, tells me to fill it out. So I do. Then I have to wait in line again. I go to the same counter, and give him the filled out form. He looks at it, kinda shuffles some things around, and then says "ooohh! United States? We no send packages there!" And I said, "umm... I just told you I was sending a package to the States and it didn't seem to be a problem." And he, in his bad English, kinda mumbles something (and this is coming from being a mumbler myself), tells something to someone behind him, and another person joins, and they are all talking in Arabic about... who knows what (who's having what for dinner?). I'm just standing there and finally, after about 10 minutes, he says, "Sorry madam. We no send packages to the United States. Try the main post office." Uh oh... here we go. I tried to get out of him a 'why not' and he tried to say something about the politics that was going on that time (April 2011... when there was all this upheaval in the Middle East, Tunisia, Libya, etc), and basically the States were cracking down and were really restricting people from sending things and because it was a smaller post office, they didn't get involved in that. 

As it was Day 1 for me, I had no phone or anything. I put on my girly charm (haha), and ask him to use his phone to call a taxi, which he does. Then came the word that would be all to familiar with me later when I would come to move here, "coming." Ahhh... "coming" - when people say that, that doesn't mean they are coming. It doesn't even  mean they are on their way, it's just a phrase that means, "I heard what you had to say and this is the only way I can respond." Although I had just come back from traveling the world and have dealt with these kind of things, I figured "coming" meant 15-20 minutes? So I'm waiting... and waiting.... an hour passes. I go to the guy again and have them call the taxi again, "coming, madam. Coming." The 2nd hour passes. Nothing. I have him call that "main post office" and have them check to see not only make sure I can send it from there but also how late they were open, "yes yes, madam. Coming and it's open." Again, I found a lot in Asia, people RARELY say "no" or "I don't know." They will give an answer... just to give an answer. Middle East is no different. 

As you can imagine, I was getting a wee bit frustrated. Little did I come to realize, it was Thursday evening at this point, which is kinda like a Friday evening at home, and basically, it's impossible to get a taxi then. Impossible. But again, naive little me kept on waiting thinking, "they must be on their way." 

Then Kay walks in, you could just tell she was a pro. She knew how to talk to them, got what she had to get done... sees me, obviously looked frustrated, and says something like "how are things going?" And I gave her my little spheal how I wanted to send something to the States, they told me I couldn't, I'm trying to go to the main post office, it's my first day in Dubai, blah blah. 1st thing she says is "you will never find a taxi on a Thursday night" and 2nd, "are you sure it's open?" Well, luckily, during my 23049823043098 visits to the counter to ask him if he can call again and again the taxi service, I did know they were open, but for like another 1/2 an hour, which literally was like 3 hours after I got there. So she tells me to go with her because she has to catch a taxi as well, and she will help me. It was like an angel waltzed in. Phew! So like magic, we hail one and she ends up going with me because she could tell I was totally lost and confused. She not only goes with me to the main post office, we make the taxi wait for us, we run in, but she soothes me when we find out that anything over 8 ounces is NOT permitted to the States. At all. The ONLY way for a package to be sent is through a courier service. Ahh...... so you know there is a point when things are going wrong that you kinda don't care anymore? After literally spending practically the whole day at the post office when they could have told me this right away SHOULD have gotten me really upset, but I just didn't even care anymore.

What came out of all that is a friendship.

Kay had given me her phone number and I called her to thank her and after a week or so, she checked in on me, and invited me to this Easter party she hosts (she runs a daycare). So I went... at that time, I wasn't working and had nothing else to do, and we ended up hanging out and it was fun. Kay's almost my mom's age, and after a year of travel, it was nice to have a 'mother figure' around.

Fast forward almost a year now, Kay and I kept in touch, when I came back for "good", we went to a few dinners and enjoyed each other's company. Then she just happen to call me to check in during my week o desperation, when I would become homeless. She offered her place right away, she lives in a villa and has multiple bedrooms for her 3 sons. I was keeping it as a backup however, it ended up becoming my only option. 

So here I am now, with Kay and her family. They have treated me sooooo sooooo nicely! When I first arrived, they made a 'family' dinner to welcome me, they tidied up the room where I am staying with so much that it almost looked like it is a hotel. Then it was her helping staff - who are Sri Lankan - they have cooked traditional Sri Lankan meals. BTW, they asked me to look at my pictures from there (hehehe, they are in for a treat! I don't think they realize I have like 0234823048329 of them! hahah!), and it's just been have been soooo sooo nice!

And again, it reminds me that there are good people in the world today.

To Kay and family, and all the nice people out there who have helped me along the way, THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!