Twenty-five Cent Stories

Raj writes:

Hi everyone,

Well, thanks to all of you reaching out to your various contacts and forwarding me some great ideas.  We pursued all paths.  Some of you had contacts to some very high level people at Delta who made a couple of phone calls.  Next thing you know, a local Delta rep was driving to the airport with food and some digital photos to scour the airport and look for Sophia.  The short end of it is that she was found, taken care of, and will be on a flight soon to see her daughter.  Sparing you the details, she had some very interesting experiences as I understand.

I don’t know Sophia myself and I have not met most of the people on this email who directly responded to me.  I am also not terribly good with words.  But I can say that it is amazing what you all pulled off – its really nice to know that good things like this can happen for strangers helping other strangers.

And, of course, I am indebted to all of you so if you need my help in any way, whether now or 10 years from now, just let me know.

Sincerely,

Raj 

 …then later

Dear, generous people! 

Thanks to all sorts of help and different kinds of support and networking from each of you, Sophia Atila Kafu was located tonight at the Amsterdam airport — first by extraordinary Jacqueline Wittebrood and the late-night, Kiswahili-speaking posse she organized to drive out to the airport, talk their way past security and search the masses face-by-face, and then joined within minutes by George from Delta (the man who single-handedly restored our faith that airline personnel are, in fact, good in a crisis) who was mobilized both through Kristen’s connections at the airline and via Shonali to Raj to Ranjan.

Sophia has been put in touch with her daughter Agnes, given tea with lots of sugar, given Euros by Jacqueline, and given a promise by George that she’ll now receive personalized care and help tomorrow with rerouting to her final destination whenever the airports reopen. She’s asleep in a chair, smiling. 

It has been a frightening ordeal for Sophia and Agnes, but their relief isn’t half as deep as their gratitude, and neither of those is a match for their complete awe at your outpouring of concern and kindness. Agnes is aware of all the hours Chris and Stephen have spent on the phone, of all the good ideas that others suggested, of every piece of news or insider airport info shared and Tweet exchanged, of the reassurances offered and final exam graciously postponed, of every phone call made and email sent on her behalf to find her mother …  she told me that the experience has given her a stunning new perspective on humankind, that she’s humbled by the generosity of so many strangers who immediately behaved like close friends, and she only wishes that she and her mum could meet you all.  The youngest of Sophia’s 12 children, Agnes is the first to attend university. She’ll receive her BS from St. Francis Xavier University on May 2nd, and with the help of all of you, Agnes and I can now stop worrying that a very proud Sophia might not make it to Halifax to see her daughter graduate. Thank you all so very much!   Paula     

Please help my friend Rajesh Gupta find his missing relative in Amsterdam. Leave me a comment if you know anyone who can help.

 Here’s Raj message date Friday, April 16

I have a bit of an emergency request and was wondering if you could tap into the Soros network for this.

We’re trying very hard to find someone — anyone — who’s among the 2000 air travelers stranded inside the Amsterdam airport, and would be willing to accept a cell phone call, locate a missing person in the airport, and get a message to her.   

Sophia Atila Kafu, 65+, from rural western Kenya , speaks no English and has been stranded at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam now for over a day and a half. She has never traveled by air, speaks Kiswahili  only, does not have a cell phone that works outside of Kenya , has very little cash and no credit card.  She made the brave decision to travel alone to attend her daugher Agnes’s university graduation in Halifax, Nova Scotia, equipped only with letters written in English that say things such as, “I am lost and don’t speak English. Please direct me to flight XXX…” and “In case of emergency, please call my daughter’s cell phone #: +1 902 971 xxxx“. We haven’t been able to reach her, and don’t know whether she is aware of the volcano and what’s going on. She had 16 euros with her when she landed, and had a layover of 11 hours BEFORE her flight from Amsterdam to Toronto was cancelled, so she is probably out of money. She has never operated a pay phone. 

She has now been tentatively rebooked, on KLM/Delta Flight 671 to Montreal at 2:45 pm tomorrow (provided the European airports reopen), but we have no way of getting the information about her new flight to her.   Delta, KLM, airport personnel, airport police, Kenayan embassy will not help locate her.

So if you know of any one stuck in Schiphol and can get a hold of them and they would be willing to do a bit of an insane task…please let me know.  I think specifically about the Soros fellows for this request because I am imagine all of know directly or indirectly of someone making that first scary airline flight into a completely unknown part of the world…

Hugs to all of you,

Raj