He had way too many boxes piled on his scooter and they had fallen off. He was sitting on the sidewalk next to his useless scooter and all the boxes with his head in his hands.
It almost made me cry just looking at him.
You guys know I have delusions of saving the world from the driver's seat of my Honda Odyssey so I decided to go check on him.
Learning from my recent misadventures in roadside assistance, I took a minute to prepare what I was going to say to him in Mandarin. I was quite proud of what I came up with.
I sat down next to him on the curb and said, "Hi there. I saw you from the road. You poor thing, you have so many boxes. Is someone coming to help you?"
"Yes," he said, pointing to his cell phone. And just at that moment his friend pulled up. "He's here now."
I realized that what I thought was a moment of total despair was actually just him, sitting on the sidewalk waiting for his friend to come and help him.
Someone had his back.
(And I can be a little dramatic sometimes. I admit that.)
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4 comments:
Awww! I felt so sorry for him too, until I realised that he was just sitting there waiting for his friend - and not in total dejection! lol.
But, for the record, I think it's really sweet of you to go up to him and try to help him out. It's especially tough when you have to speak a foreign language. Not many people would do it even speaking their native language. So, good for you - you may not have been needed, but at least you offered.
Thanks Sarah for seeing my sweet side and ignoring the overly-dramatic one. :)
That's one thing that chinese people as a whole need to do better. Compassion for total strangers
this is very sweet and touching.
however there are a lot of dangers to doing something like this. the reason why a lot of people are not helpful is because many guise their desperate situation for criminal acts/intentions.
i would be more wary being a woman, if someone really needs assistance, call an ambulance or the police but don't get involved.
this is everywhere including china.
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