The good karma in helping others…a must-read real life encounter

My buddy, Mark Darlington shared a really interesting encounter of doing good via facebook that I just had to share with you. Little acts of kindness like these make this world worth living! He wrote:

I had a very very interesting encounter last night. Seems to be a case of one good turn deserves another?

Some friends who had also arrived from UK, called for a meet up at a joint in East Legon, Ghana. On my way, I encountered one of the temporary Police Checkpoints.The one who checked my car was a police woman, who to me appeared to be tired. She asked where i was going and I mentioned the name of the place and she gave me directions. It was less than 10mins from the barrier. She hesitantly and politely asked if it was possible I could get her and her colleague some food on my way back, as they were very hungry at post. I was taken aback bcos most often that not, it will be some policeman requesting money. I felt sorry for her, so I answered in the affirmative and asked what time she was leaving her post/location. She said in about an hour and a half. I said cool and that i should be returning by then. I kept thinking abt it, as I made my way to meet my friends. 

I ordered the food when i got to the joint, after finding a perfect spot to park my car. I narrated the story to one of my friends and my friend said not to bother with them. I politely said, it was something I felt I wanted to do. When the food was ready, I went to my car but place was getting busy and saw it will be difficult to find parking on my return as not all my friends were there yet, so could not leave at the time. I saw an UBER driver drop off someone and asked him to quickly take me to the checkpoint and back to drop off some food for the police men at the checkpoint, so I don’t lose my parking space. The Uber driver took me to the police checkpoint and i gave the food to the policewoman who had requested originally. She was both shocked and surprised I came back but very very grateful! She could not thank me enough.

The Uber driver took me back to the joint. When I asked him what my charge was, he told me he would not charge me for the trip. I asked why, and he said because my trip was just to do a favour, he could not take my money. I was like…WOW! I was surprised! Good people exist in Ghana!! I however insisted and paid him what would have been the charge for a similar trip and thanked him because I knew he was working and had to pay for fuel used. I was like …. was it good karma paying me back immediately? My little concern was how the policewoman could trust me or someone else for that matter, to bring her food when she never knew me from anywhere… i had my risk management cap on!

I did this post to thank the Uber driver for his generous offer I had to refuse, and also to encourage others to sometimes be our brother’s keeper…. Kudos to all policemen and women who work to keep us safe in Ghana.