The kindness of strangers

When I left for my trip I specifically didn’t take any jewellery with me. That is, nothing except for the pieces that I never take off, each piece having special significance, with the oldest item dating back to 1986, possibly earlier. They’re all simple pieces, nothing fancy or extravagant and I’ve been wearing them for years. I felt like jewellery was a luxury I could do without, just like nail polish and make up – au naturelle all the way.

This morning, as I was leaving my guest house in Sauraha to head back to Kathmandu, I realized that my gold bracelet was missing from my wrist. In a panic I asked them to stop the bus that was taking us to the bus park and ran back up to my room to search for the bracelet, pulling out the sheets, scanning the floors, but to no avail. The guest house staff asked me what was wrong and I mentioned that my bracelet was missing and ran back down to the bus, not wanting to hold up my fellow travellers. “Breathe”, I said to myself, “these things happen, there’s nothing you can do”. My friends were sympathetic but realistic. The bracelet could have fallen off anywhere, the chances of finding it were pretty slim.

Resigning myself to the fact that it was gone, I said goodbye in my head, repeating over and over to myself that it’s only a possession. We arrived at the bus park and boarded the bus to Kathmandu. Just as we had settled ourselves in and were waiting for the bus to start moving, a man jumped on the bus and headed towards me. “River Bank Inn?” he asked me and I nodded. Holding out his hand he revealed my bracelet, one link broken, but otherwise intact. I was overwhelmed. To search for the bracelet and then get it over to the bus park in time would not have been an easy task, and definitely the last thing I would have even imagined could happen. Tears welled in my eyes at this unexpected kindness.

It’s the little things that make such a difference.

A big thanks to the staff at the River Bank Inn, Sauraha, Chitwan.