Apr 8 – Good Deeds

We’re at the airport waiting for our flight and have some time to kill so thought we’d share our new goal with you. Jacob and I have decided to do one nice thing every day while on the trip. We made this decision on April 8^th and this is how the first day went:

Things that I did:

1.       While in Ethiopia (Lalibela), we took a guided tour with a local who was part of a tourism board. We enjoyed his tour so much that I decided to write an email today to the director of the organization expressing how much we appreciated the professionalism and quality of our guide and that it was important to me to communicate this to his boss.

2.       There are people protesting here and while watching from the sidelines, an older woman had asked Jacob for some of his water to which he said “no”. I took his bottle and poured her a cup.

3.       The protests spilled into the train station and while waiting for our train, there was a woman who had passed out. The protesters were simply standing around her and continuing to protest so I went into the middle of the crowd to see if she was conscious. I found a cloth in her purse, soaked the cloth with water and placed it on her head. I also positioned her so that she would be more comfortable.  

LUNGI TOTAL: 3

Things that Jacob did:

1.       Stole money from a waiter.

2.       Denied the thirsty old woman from having some water on a very hot day.

3.       We’re supposed to volunteer in Sierra Leone for 1 week and Jacob tried to convince me to only do 3 days.

JACOB TOTAL: -3

Ok, this is Jacob writing now – I would like to point out that there is a good explanation for all of these. I swear I’m not a bad person!

1.       This was an accident of course - after we paid for our meal and left the restaurant, I realized that the waiter had undercharged us but it was too late. I even debated going back but we were too far away.

2.       The beggars here constantly ask us for our water and drinks and usually I’ll give it to them. I had just bought a new bottle of water and I thought the woman was a beggar asking me for it so I said no. I didn’t realize it was a lady who had just been in the sun too long and was dehydrated.

3.       I can’t defend myself on this one.

Here are some protest pics – the people are upset that there is no work for them and the government isn’t helping. The woman who was passed out had actually been hit by a police officer and instead of allowing the ambulance to come through, the protesters insisted on leaving her there to assist in proving their point – that the government doesn’t help them.

The woman I helped