Kindness of strangers in a strange land - Scotland

This happened many years ago on my first trip to UK in 1996. We stayed in a lovely cottage called Bryan's cottage in the Lakes District. Byran's cottage was quite drab from the outside but it was so very beautiful and English from the inside.

From there we ventured to the surrounding areas and drove up to Scotland. We travelled to the town Dumfries where the famous poet Robert Burns lived.  Robert Burns is known as the Ploughman Poet of Scotland and is the author of the famous Auld Lang Syne as well as many other famous poems.

Here in Dumfries, I experienced the kindness of strangers several times. We were travelling around in a big van - big enough to put all the luggage of 10 travellers.We had quite some difficulty finding parking for our outsized vehicle. I remembered after we had found a good parking lot, we happily strolled off to venture. But a middle aged lady called me back to our van and pointed to a card on her dashboard. She told me we would have to get those parking cards to put into our van but I did not quite understand her because this was in the good old days before they had introduced the parking coupon system in Malaysia. After some lengthy explaination which yours truly,truly did not comprehend, she took her parking coupon and placed it on the dashboard and told us we had some 40 minutes before it expired. We thanked her for her kindness and patience.  Finally we understood she was trying to prevent us from getting a summons!

At another part of Dumfries, we again had difficulty parking the van. After circling the block several times in vain, we noticed a man near a basement parking that stated "For Unloading Only." He had seen us going round and round the block and he motioned for us to park in the basement with his kind permission. How thankful and grateful we were that total strangers took notice of our plight and went out of their way to help us.

These acts of kindness from strangers in Dumfries (who did not know us from Adam)  impressed upon me that we Malaysians needed to develop a different lifestyle; one which accomodates strangers. We needed ( very much) to learn to go out of our way to be hospitable and kind, especially to those who are foreigners in our country. So after that trip, I made some kind of mental resolution. I would try to help foreign visitors to Malaysia, at least help with stuff connected to transport. Easier said than done!



I thought making mental resultions to help strangers was good enough. But when I actually came down to trying to help others, I had to struggle with inner feelings of self consciousness and self accusations of being  kay poh chee etc etc.   But constant struggles like these are good - finally the struggles strengthen the inner resolve that I must help a stranger no matter what I feel on the inside. Once that decision is made to help strangers, opportunites to help others will display themselves and become slightly more evident to our eyes, ears or heart.



Fast forward many years. A few weeks ago, I happened to hear a lady ask someone in a shop in Bangsar whether she could call a taxi to the shop. I knew this person was most likely not a local because she was not dressed in working clothes. I also knew that the chances of her getting a taxi in that remote part of Bangsar was really, quite remote. So having had resolved years ago to help strangers and having had many chances to practice that resolution, it now came quite naturally to me to ask her if she needed a lift somewhere. I could drop her to some civilized part of Bangsar where she could easily hail a cab. She happily took on my offer. But when I proceeded to leave the shop, she still had to pay for some bills via the credit card and it took some time to process it. So I got a bit impatient and asked her if it was going to take long. I mentioned in passing I needed to go back to school.

She said "No, - just a few more minutes." Later she asked me which school I was heading to. I mentioned Convent Sentul. Imagine my surprise when she excitely told me she was an ex-student of Convent Sentul! What a coincidence!! She quickly hopped into my car and had so many questions to ask about her beloved ex-school.



To cut a long story short, during the car ride, I realized she was on holiday and was teaching at some local universities while being on holiday here. She expressed her desire to visit the school and instead of dropping her off in Bangsar, I took her to school. I also invited her to Convent Sentul to do a motivational talk for the Form 3 and 5 while she was still back here in Malaysia.

And so that was how the motivational talk by Ms Jenoah Joseph from the University of Stirling, Scotland  and Ms Yong Lai Peng ( her classmate) from United Nations came into being. Jenoah shared with our students how she had to study in a home without proper electrical supply and how her dad had to come on his motorbike to take their heavy school bags so that they could walk home back to Segambut from Sentul!  It's still a long walk - I assure you!

Ms Yong shared on how her parents were vegetable sellers in the Selayang pasar borong and how she had to struggle to succeed. I really enjoyed their session in particular the Q&A session. It was very beautiful to see how two girls from 2 different races bond together while they were in Convent Sentul and how they are still such fast friends despite the distance and the time that has lapsed between them both.

Hearing  real life stories motivated my girls that they could succeed despite whatever odds were stacked against them! Jenoah and Ms Yong reminded the girls that they should come back to Convent Sentul after they have left the school so that they could motivate the next batch of students and continue the legacy of giving back to the school.

So through this strange coincidence. God reminds me of the benefits of helping strangers. As I have been helped, now I am able to help.