Thanks for everyone who kept voting and kept him at number one :D
Yesterday, I was walking in the subway station as I’m transferring over from train #4 to #5 and saw some men walking around with a bulk of paper in their hands. At a glance I was able to tell that they were foreigners(as if I’m not myself) and was asking people to sign up for something. I didn’t really want to sign up for anything political(since it seemed like a petition of some sort) so I was hoping that I could just walk by. If you know me well enough, you know that I’m not the type of a person who can easily say no to people asking for help; I’m not sure if that was written on my face or not, but the guy walked straight into me speaking little Korean that he knows.
“아이들을 도와주세요.” trans: “Help these children.”
I looked into his face and I was able to tell that he was Indian; I replied in English:
“What is it about?”
His face lit up and said,
“Oh, you speak English!”
“Why, yes. I’m from America.”
“Ah, very good! Could you make some donation for our cause?”
He presented some of the pictures that he had as he continued,
“it’s for education, food, medical supply, and living conditions.”
I glanced over at the train stop and it didn’t seem like the train was gonna be there any minute. I pulled out my wallet as I answered,
“Sure, I don’t think I have much in position at the moment. but…”
I opened my wallet and found 7,000KRW(a little less than 7USD).
“here you go. I guess that’s all I have for now.”
The man smiled at me and said,
“Thank you very much.”He handed over the bulk of paper which I thought was a petition signing sheet and asked me to sign my name, location, and the amount of donation I’ve made. I quickly skimmed through the list to make sure it doesn’t affect me in anyway but I rather saw the list of the people who supposedly donated before me. For a moment I felt bad because I knew the list was fake. There was a list of names written in Korean and the amount they donated which unrealistically measured in the numbers of ten thousands. A good half of the sign-up sheet was written in an identical penmanship followed by my sloppy English writing due to the deathly cold air.
He curiously asked,
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from California.”
“Ah,” he pointed at himself “from India.”
“Really? I have some Indian friends myself in California.”
After signing up I handed over the bulk of paper and he thanked me again as he handed over a piece of paper. He circled the website address with his pen while I was holding the paper in my fingers and said,
“Give us an email when you come to India.”
I replied,
“Okay, I will.”
I turned my eyes and looked over, the train was approaching. I started walking towards the train and thought to myself,
“Maybe I should’ve asked more details to make sure the cause isn’t fake… then again why would they walk around asking for donations at 10:00PM under negative fifteen degrees Celsius.”
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Korean proverb. Interpretation: “Initiation is the half of completion.” Similar to: “Starting is half the battle.” (via izakly) |


