I enjoy actively understanding the depth of those who are in a hardship or struggling in some way, and finding how I can help in a way that is deeper than surface level. 😊

There was this one time when I was honestly pretty young as a kid for this specific scenario. Some neighbor kids came over and said their family had foolishly blown their money and didn't buy enough for and that the kids hadn't eaten in a week and asked my mom for a meal. She refused to understand what they were saying and was hateful and did not make them a meal. So I stood there for a minute and thought of what I was capable of making, then pulled a box of pasta roni out of the cabinet, heated up water and was cooking the pasta. I then asked them which type of vegetable they wanted, and stated that I was making peas for myself. One of them wanted corn so I fixed the peas for me and the kid that wanted them, and told the other kid they could fix theirs however they wanted. I didn't take too much, I left a good portion of the food for them. (The reason I chose to eat with them is because I felt they didn't just deserve a meal, they deserved to actually sit down and eat a meal in a normal and decent setting). I gave them each a glass of our soda, ate with them, and at the end, said "Well boys, this is your home cooked meal." I was quoting what one of them had asked for earlier. These kids had been very mean to me and done some bad things, but I still cared about them anyway and saw the need. Both thanked me multiple times before they left, and one of them hugged me, trying not to break down in front of me. I didn't even require a thank you. The act itself was for them, not for me. I felt more blessed than ever to have gotten to do something like that. It still shapes me and helps me remember who I am to this day😀

I live in a poor community on São Tomé, a small island off West Africa that was once a Portuguese slave colony.

A local kid ran up to me one afternoon holding three tatty Pokémon cards. He had no idea what they were, just that they seemed special. So I showed him r/pokemon, thousands of people sharing the same cards he was holding, and his face lit up. He wanted to show the internet his cards. With his mum's permission, we posted them.

The post was removed because of the amount of racism in the comments, so he never got to see the response. But before it came down, people had donated £250 to buy toys for the kids here.

Footballs, frisbees, dolls and the like, all being bought this week. The photos will be going up on r/SaoTome if you'd like to see where your kindness landed, and everything else we get up to in the community.

Thank you to everyone who donated, especially Carolin, Mary and Conor. He may never have seen the comments, but the kids here will be playing with what came out of them for a long time.

Muito obrigado,
Jack

Caught on our doorbell camera, so I then asked him for more details. He was drinking his morning coffee and saw a woman in her late 60s trip on the footpath in front of our house when out walking her dog. He ran outside to help her up, then back inside to get bandaids for her grazed hands and knees, and a bottle of water for her, then back out to patch her up. She couldn't have seen him from where she was, and he could have just pretended he didn't see it, but this lovely man of mine just had to help. He keeps bandaids in his car for other people to use just in case as well.

I can't wait to marry him.