The Best People

Diligent people, trustworthy human beings, usually don´t stop in the street to help someone who has fallen. Many consider it too dangerous. Many don´t care. What kind of city holds people with golden hearts who will help you out of nowhere?

A normal day falls into the category of disaster in four seconds when you slip in a street and fall down like a heavy package of flowers, falling apart, losing petals, scattered on the floor, bruising the beauty of each flower. Sometimes, depending on the physical state of the fallen person, the flowers are picked up easily to continue walking, smiling to the public and waving good bye, sometimes not. Exactly this happened to me Monday afternoon around two, when only my small fitness acquired through much work out helped me not to break some bones. The pain was surprisingly taking over my leg, and couldn´t touch my left ankle, not even gently, as I would scream with pain.

A very old car passed by. I thought to myself: “I wish it was a taxi…” and kept trying to reach a big stone, an unbelievably hard task. The old car stopped and put reverse, a chubby white haired nice man came down and said: “Madam, I saw you falling down, are you OK?”- Yes sir, I answered, it is only my ankle that got hurt and will not allow me to stand up. “Don´t you worry m´am, I have to pick up my mother and will be right back to take you to the hospital” – Thank you sir, I really appreciate your help, I said.

Almost no credit on my phone, the calls uncertain, needed help. A young woman in running clothes approached us, and gently offered herself to stay with me until the man could come back. I said I didn´t want to bother any of them, but she insisted. She helped me take off my shoe and my sock, to see the damage. A young man came out from the house and saw me, he went inside and came back with a tube of diclofenaco, which is a gel that football players use to soothe feet pain and acts as local anti inflammatory. He said to rub a lot of gel on the ankle until we got to the hospital. Then he left for work.

The white haired man came back and we all tried to make me stand up. Not possible. The ankle hurt too much. “We must put the bones in their place”, said the man while touching my foot. “It will hurt a bit, but otherwise we will not be able to go anywhere” he said. I looked him in the eye and handed my foot. Craaaack! And Awwww! There we go! With everything in place, we could finally reach the car seat. On the way to the hospital I called my husband again and reached him. He was faraway and it would take him nearly an hour to reach me.

The young lady, the white haired man, and the gel man, three good spirited people sent to be my guardian angels. Doctors in the emergency room gave me a shot with a pain killer, took some x rays that showed a fissure in the bone, that will need to be taken care of after the swelling yields.

What a wonderful world my Tarija. Only here you live around people who will care enough about people, to give them their time when it is needed. Only here people will stop to comfort you when you are in pain, they will offer you their helping hand. We may be one of the poorest countries in the world, but we rank in the top four in richness of the heart, the real wealth.

What are the traits of city in which it is nice to live in? Good access to schools, good jobs, good food, or maybe, good people that are willing to help you when you fall down? Well done Jackie. You chose the right city to live in. Tarija, has it all.