He could have just pointed his finger towards the direction of the mobile shop and gone on with his day, but he didn’t.
I was struggling to find a mobile shop to get a Turkish SIM, and that’s when I saw Erol. Seeing me standing on the side of the road clueless, he asked me if he could help.
Soon we were walking through a crowded area and he took me to a mobile shop. He also walked in and helped with translation. He waited until I got the SIM set up and all working.
Next he asked if I was hungry. I said I was starving. He took me to an amazing döner kebab place and introduced me to all his friends and the chef.
Next he took me to an awesome hotel and negotiated a great deal for me to rest for the night.
Erol showed up this morning for breakfast and handed me a packed lunch for the road. He jumped on the bike and pedalled with me to the end of the town and helped me get on the highway to Istanbul.
As he hugged and wished me good luck, I was thinking what amazing kindness he had shown. He is a lawyer and must have had a busy day. When I asked him for his help yesterday, he could have just pointed me in the direction of the mobile shop, but instead he understood that I’m a foreigner who might need help with translation and went above and beyond to help.
So glad to have made an awesome friend like Erol on my first day of entry into Turkey. Kindness abounds in Turkey 🇹🇷.
The orange vest guy was trying real hard to get the gumboots off of the old man’s feet. They were way too tight. A combination of wet pants and swollen feet due to working in the cold for long hours. The old man was laughing so hard and said that he couldn’t get them off.
I asked if I could help and they gladly accepted. I tried hard, but they were too tight. I asked the orange vest guy to hold the old man while I pulled the boots with all my might.
After a bit of push-pull and twists, the boot came off, and they erupted in joy and gave me a big hug and a high five.
The old man offered some cigarettes (it’s like gold in this part of the world) as a gift, and I declined very politely.
I just thought to myself that there’s always something we can do to help someone and be kind, even something as simple as getting the gumboots off an old man’s feet 🙂
(I wish I had recorded the whole thing, but it all happened so spontaneously and so quickly)