Lost in translation

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I just want to share this story, a personal experience with a happy ending. I consider it very inspiring and unforgettable. Several years ago, I was about 18 years old or so, I was hanging out in my neighborhood’s downtown area, with one of my little brothers, we were eating at some taco stand on the street. Very nice day in the afternoon, great weather, tasty food. A lady, I would say in her fifties, approached the food stand where we were at. With a worried gesture in her face she asked to the about 6-8 people that were there, including us, if somebody could help her because she got lost. Lost … I forgot to mention, this happened in Tijuana, Mexico and the lady was a US citizen, we didn’t asked but because of what we noticed, it was obvious that she came across the border to buy some medicines. So, she is lost in a city she didn’t knew, probably only the path to the pharmacy and back to the border, but she might have gotten confused at some point or decided to take a look around and all of a sudden lost track. So, back to the taco stand. When she asked for help, in English language of course, either nobody understood her or if somebody did, they did not want/could help for whatever reason. But we did, I asked her what the problem was, and briefly she explained to me that she came driving across the border to buy some medicines, left her car in some parking lot and all of a sudden she got lost and ended up here. I offered myself to help, I said to her if she would like for me to give her a ride to the parking lot where she left her car, but since she didn’t remembered where that was, we were going to have a difficult time finding out which of the many existent parking lot in the city was the one we needed to find. So, after driving around for a while, searching, I figured we could try playing detective. I drove back to the border where she crossed, and started driving from there to the possible exits she could’ve taken to downtown, she kind a remembered some place, some sign, something and that’s the path we took. One thing led to the other, and there it was, the parking lot, and from the outside she saw her car, I felt relieved, she looked happy. Some tears fell from her eyes, I assume it was the result of different emotions but at least I noticed she was happy in some way. She offered me a couple of bucks, and I wouldn’t mind taking it but my personal values stepped in and I know I would’ve felt better not accepting it, instead I told her she might need it more for her own good. Too much I learned from this, which happened about 20 years ago. Being helpful without asking for a reward is far more rewarding. Trust, even in actual times is too appreciated, especially when we’re talking about strangers from different countries with different cultures.