Orietta Teta from Rwanda

Hello everybody! There was a day I woke up with a burning desire to help someone. Immediately, a person came into my mind and I last saw her in 2017 when we (GEN) were selling school materials. She told me that she needed scholastic tools. Wondering where I would get her number, I thought of the guy who connected us but unfortunately, the guy had relocated to Uganda. He told me that he did not have her number, but he continued to ask why I needed her. I told him as he already knew the story from back then. He asked if it would be possible to shift the help to another person who needed it more. Saying “YES” was difficult to me at the time, but he kept asking and I told him that I would think about it. I then thought to myself, maybe he refused to give me the girl’s number when he had it, just so that I could help whoever he chooses. The money I had was not enough to help more than one family and I had a rigid thought that I had to help this girl. All those thoughts continued playing in my mind and finally I decided to tell him that I would help only one person out of all the others he had suggested. He sent the person’s number and I transferred the money. I then called the receiver and she was thankful which made me happy. But to my surprise, the guy who called me told me after few days that the father of the girl I sent the money to told him that it hadn’t reached them. I was so disappointed and angry at the same time.  He sent me a message calling me “A LIAR”, saying if I had not lied to him, he would not have promised things to people. At first, I was so angry, I even left him on read, but later on, I decided to forward him the message that proved that I had transferred the money, to prove my innocence. He asked for forgiveness and we continued our casual friendship. The lesson I got from this is that no matter the different challenges we face, when we want to be good, nothing must hold us down. How we overcome those challenges determines our desire and ability to achieve the good we wanted for others.