Overwhelming act of kindness

Have you ever felt helpless and frustrated? All you want to do is find a nice corner and cry to your heart's content? That is how I felt on 2nd Jan at 10 pm GMT. I was just told I would not travel back to South Africa. The person delivering this message made sure I saw how pleased he was that I would not "leave" them in Nigeria to "suffer" while I went to enjoy in "ABROAD"!!!! My luggage was thrown out and my passport flung at me. This stress came because South African Immigration services do not communicate with each other. In South Africa I was given a go ahead to travel out with my paper visa, in Nigeria I was told the visa was not valid. I had to apply for a visitor's visa in order to reenter South Africa so I can sort out the mess they had made of my permit. My bank decided at that point to be efficient and freeze my account since I was not in the county at the time I said I would be.  I reapplied for the visa and was told it would take 6 days to be processed. It ended up taking one month and 6 days. They just forgot to mention the extra one month. 

Did I mention  I was stranded at the airport and for some reason I do not have or know anybody who lives in Lagos. I got my first taste of overwhelming kindness. In between my sobs a lady that had the same issue as I told me in a quiet voice "Stop crying, you can come and stay with me in my house". I looked at her like I didn't hear what she said, she repeated herself. I have never had anyone just decide to help me without knowing me. Its either the person is a friend or family. At that point I had to pray for forgiveness from God because when I saw her I had some thoughts go through my head that were not leaning towards nice-words. At that point I realized I have been going around putting people in a box and I needed to open my mind.

On reaching her house the whole family took me in as if I had lived there all my life. It was to strange to me, I was offered food, water to bath, a couch to sleep and even change of cloths. Just like that her mother gave me a name PRECIOUS and I became her 7th child. I had to live with them for a month and not one day did they ask me for money for food or when I would leave. 

I think the day I had to leave I saw some tears in people's eyes as they would miss me. 

I had expectations from people to help, I had expectations from the embassy to process my visa fast but God decided to teach me a few lessons for a month. In the subsequent blogs those lessons will be revealed.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beginning of Adulting

It has been a while since I wrote. I was basically lazy to write anything. I have no real reason why I haven't shared my thoughts. A lot has happened since the last time, I have finally finished school, I got a job and basically I am becoming an adult. That is something I really do not feel I want to be; an adult. It is not the best life I must say. There are bills to pay, there are co-workers to deal with, there are groceries to buy and worst of all I have to go to bed early so I can wake up early to go to work. Why am I torturing myself in this way? I love my job. It is a weird thing to say in a world where people are constantly complaining about their work and life. I enjoy what I do and how I touch lives. As a child I was facinated by electricity. I wanted to know where it came from, how it was made and why we depended so much on it. My facination has not died, in fact every time I pass a high tension transmission line I become happy. Something so magnificient can kill in...
Read more

I'm back

Image
I have not written for a long time. My excuse is that I have been busy. The truth is, I do not know what to write. Several things have happened in the past months I have not written. I went home i.e. Nigeria and came back, I have finished my programming and hoping to complete my thesis soon, and I have also made new friends. I must say I have a better rapport with my supervisor now. I do not know if he is glad I am finally leaving or if he is really making an effort to have a better understanding of me. I stand out in my study group because I have refused to let what I study define what wear or eat or say. I have refused to look like all those women engineers that put on only a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with boots. I wear heels, use make up, wear skirts and I even let my hair down sometimes. The picture is how I look today. I felt gorgeous and I thought to myself, why don't I look it? I promise I am back to writing about MY THOUGHTS
Read more

Vacation

Image
I never understood people who packed up their bags and decide to go for a 2 week vacation in the middle of the year. I totally did not get why they would waste so much money. However I am beginning to understand the importance of just getting away. To say this year has been hectic is an understatement.  I have known what it is to be helpless and homeless at the same time..............  I have been called a fool and an idiot in so many words and ways...................  I have been told how incompetent I am................................................ I do not even want to go into my own personal self-doubt that hunts me day and night (but mostly at night because its just more scary then, I tell you these self-doubts are smart little things eh ).... All that whining above is to give a justification of why I needed a break, I needed to get out, I needed to escape even if it would be just for a few days. And I got my reason to tour the world Manchester a...
Read more