How an act of kindness can change your world…

About three years ago I was advised to google a name of a person if I wanted to know more about that person with whom I had lost contact over more than 25 years. The result of pushing a few buttons on my computer was amazing and overwhelming. My youth friend had become a surgeon and a tropical doctor who had chosen for a career with an organization called “Medical Checks for Children” and visited the poorest countries of our world. “Why is that so amazing?”, you might think. Well, when you sat in first grade of primary school, your teacher might have asked you what you want to become when you grow up. My friend who was 7 years of old said: “I want to become a doctor and go help people in development countries”. For myself, I was going to be a pilot and fly her to these countries. But then again, which boy doesn’t want to become a pilot, fireman or policeman?

If you have found a person on the internet, you may be able to read a lot about that person, but getting in touch with him/her is a totally different story. With some trouble I could get in touch with someone of “Medical Checks for Children” and ask if my old friend could contact me on my telephone number. It might not surprise you that I didn’t get any reaction, but the flame had caught within me and I really wanted to contact Karlien, because she happened to be the first love of my life as well. After more than a year and several e-mails, she responded to me and I thought: “Now we can get together again”. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out to be that easy. We had made two appointments to meet each other in March 2009. She had to cancel both appointments because of her work as a surgeon. Then I didn’t hear from her for months. Meanwhile I had written to a Dutch TV show called “memories”, this being the only TV show Karlien ever watches, if our story could be a story for them as well. In august I received an e-mail from Karlien which stated that she had made a pilgrimage by foot from the Netherlands to Santiago de Compostella in Spain. She had called it some kind of sabbatical. Again I was amazed and surprised with her actions. Maybe you can also imagine my surprise that the Dutch TV station indeed was interested in our story and wanted to interview me on the subject of doing a program with their show. Still it was my conviction that nothing would come out of it…

Until last January when suddenly the TV host of ‘memories’ with her cameraman and director stood in front of me at my work in Veghel. I was really flabbergasted and could hardly say a word. And that wasn’t all, she had an application for a visa up on her sleeve too. If I wanted to sign this form and go to Bangladesh! Of course I couldn’t refuse and two weeks later I sat on a plane to Dhaka. Everything had been planned beforehand and I fell into one surprise after the other. Bangladesh appears to be overpopulated and the traffic is worsening every day. Leaving Dhaka, there is less and less motorized traffic and what is even nicer, people are not used to tourists so they don’t hassle you to buy anything. Of course they are curious and want to ask you questions. Communication goes with hands and feet and a little English, but always very friendly and never imposing. The meeting with Karlien turned out to be heartwarming and very emotional. The camera couldn’t affect that and I was made a member of the team for a couple of days. Actually checking children in the middle of nowhere can be a very uplifting and energizing activity. In the evenings we evaluated our experiences with stating our highlights, low points and points of improvement, which again gave us positive energy although we all felt very tired after a hard days work too. My stay in Bangladesh was only for six days, but it felt more like six weeks if I look back at it. The TV show has been broadcasted on March 22nd and the reactions I’ve received were almost all positive.

What is the link with ‘An act of kindness’ ?, you might ask. Karlien has written a lot of articles too. One of them is about Kindness and she refers to the book: “Power of Kindness” by Piero Ferrucci. This is a marvelous book with very practical information about how kindness can work for you and the people around you. This book was also my link to your website.

With kind regards,
Paul van Hoek
The Netherlands