Friday, May 12, 2006

Island Style Confidence

I’ve mentioned a few times that security and trust on the island is very different to SA. Let me quote what dad had to say about it:

“Lynn bought something at the Emporium on Tuesday and left it on a shelf at the entrance to the shop. She forgot all about it, and when she just happened to go into the shop again yesterday she recognized the parcel on the shelf and realized that it was her parcel from the day before, so she just picked it up and carried on with her day. As you know I did Jacob’s Ladder on Monday, so I went into the Museum this afternoon to get a certificate to prove that I had done it. No problem, the lady just printed out the certificate. I said “How do you know that I actually did it?” She just said “We trust. If you’re not trustworthy, you are the loser.” OK. She said the certificate would cost £ 2.50. I said I wasn’t sure whether I had enough on me. “No problem, bring it next time you pass this way.” But how about this one: Mom and I went for a walk down town this morning, and Lynn said she would follow later in the car and meet us somewhere in town, so she gave me the walkie talkie. While we were in a shop called London Gift Shop, she called me just to make sure that I could respond. In a moment of absent-mindedness I left the instrument on the counter and continued our walk down town. About an hour later a lady came up to me in another shop and said she was glad to have found me because she wanted to return the walkie talkie. I had not even missed it and thanked her profusely. She said she had phoned the local radio station, and they were sending out a broadcast message every half hour, presumably asking the gentleman who had left a walkie talkie at London Gift Shop to come and collect it. She said she would phone them again to discontinue the broadcast as she had found me.”

1 comment:

Randall said...

Wow,What a story.Must be nice to have that kind of trust there.

So much truth in saying if your not trustworthy than you are the loser.