Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal


--by Naomi Shihab Nye, posted Apr 26, 2007

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: "If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately."

Well -- one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there.

An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. "Help," said the flight service person. "Talk to her. What is her problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she did this."

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. "Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, Sho bit se-wee?"

The minute she heard any words she knew -- however poorly used -- she stopped crying.  

She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said "No, no, we're fine, you'll get there, just late.  Who is picking you up? Let's call him and tell him."

We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and would ride next to her -- SouthWest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out, of course, that they had ten shared friends!

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions.

Soon after, she pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies -- little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts -- out of her bag and was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo -- we were all covered with the same
powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free (non-alcoholic) beverages from huge coolers and the two little girls for our flight -- one African
American, one Mexican American -- ran around serving us all Apple Juice and Lemonade.  And they were covered with powdered sugar too.

I noticed that my new best friend -- by now we were holding hands -- had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Ah, an old country traveling tradition: always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, "This is the world I want to live in. The shared world."

Not a single person in this gate -- once the cries of confusion stopped -- was apprehensive about any other person.

They took to the cookies. All I felt like hugging everyone else.
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Readers Comments

Bhavani wrote: Wonderful and inspiring story!
Xunshine wrote: I have experienced the feelings of delayed flights and the stress that hovers over the group waiting. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story. The next time I;m in this situation I will remember this story and try to add some happiness to other waiting souls.
Mishon wrote: O for a sensitive heart with a sense of fun & humour. And you get a warm heart & sugar coated cookiies to boot. A great story that your new friend will never forget your kindness.
ADEMI wrote: What a heart! I'm very sure this new friend of yours will probably tell your story for the rest of her life and probably bond a strong tie between both families and who knows where that can lead. Keep doing what is good sister, great job.
frenzy wrote: What a lovely storey with such kind heartedness in todays world of fear and lack of understanding of other religions and cluture
MJ wrote: Wonderful story. Think I will make cookies today and share them with someone new!
brighteyes wrote: I LOVE a kindness story that inspires and this one inspired me as well as bringing tears to my eyes. I put myself in her shoes and how I would feel to be in her country, not understanding the language, etc....YOU WENT ABOVE & BEYOND...WHAT AN ANGEL YOU WERE & ARE...I AGREE THAT I TOO, WANT TO LIVE IN THE "SHARED" WORLD.

Smiles are being sent your way!
Brighteyes
MsJava wrote: Yes, you were her angel! Bless you.
Lovebug wrote: I too want to live in a shared world, for me it takes a long time to understand. And when I do come into some small awareness, I seem to stumble into it, rather than direct myself to it. All of our news and concerns at this time in the USA seems to be directed at illegales. I was comings out of church one day, this particular church holds two different services, one for those who speak english, and one for those who speak spanish. As hard as I have tried to learn spanish, it makes no sense to me, maybe it is because I am old. I was really unhappy with myself, but then the thought crossed my mind, well lovebug. Maybe you can't learn a foreign language, but you do smile and toutch their children, maybe that is enough, I sure hope so.
aogrn wrote: We all have the potential to be more...more loving...more joyous...more helpful...and always more giving.
Thank you for sharing!!!!

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