Kindness makes the world a good place. And the kindness shown by a taxi driver to a lost stranger on a dark Saturday night is keeping our hope alive that people are essentially good at heart.
We take our hats off to Ephraim, the taxi driver.
The night began like any other when a father dropped off his daughter and friends for a night out in the city and agreed to pick them up afterwards to ensure their safe return.
But, as life sometimes tends to do, things inadvertently spin out of control, running off on a tangent of their own.
‘Liefde by die Nam’, an offshoot of South Africa’s ‘Liefde by die Dam’, was the event of the evening.
With a bevy of well-known Afrikaans musicians, the concert drew thousands of people to the city for an enjoyable night of music.
It also drew my daughter’s German friend Thomas from the bush, where he is in his eighth year of studying Namibian wildlife.
He parked his car at our home in Klein Windhoek and there was a flurry of excitement as I drove the young people to the city centre for a night of fun.
When I collected my daughter later, the rest of her friends had decided to continue the night’s revelry at a karaoke club, and Thomas had arranged to stay over at a friend’s house.
We happily drove home and left them to their singing, only hearing the story the next day of how Thomas’s night had turned into a frightening one – until he was rescued by a stranger.
After the karaoke, his friends had dropped him off at what they thought was his friend’s house and waved him goodbye.
Thomas used the remote given to him so he would be able to access the property when he returned.
His friends’ car had already disappeared down the road when Thomas realised the remote didn’t work and that he must have the wrong house or possibly the wrong street.
Not knowing the area, he walked up and down in a panic, trying the remote on several gates, but with no success.
He then wandered up and down the adjacent streets, becoming more lost the later it got.
Eventually a taxi pulled up next to him as Thomas was beginning to feel desperate.
The taxi driver, Ephraim, asked if he needed a ride.
Thomas quickly explained his story that he was lost and didn’t know where to go.
Ephraim told him it was dangerous to be walking around the city streets in the dead of night and as he was still on his night shift, he could take him to his home and fetch him in the morning.
A relieved Thomas agreed and Ephraim drove him to his small ‘okambashu’, deep in Katutura. He showed him to his couch and said he’d be back in the morning.
Thomas heard the door lock from the outside and was left alone to spend a restless night, tossing and turning, as the night stilled to silence, occasionally punctuated by a dog barking outside.
When Ephraim returned the next morning, Thomas asked him why he had locked him in.
Ephraim replied that he wasn’t locking him in, he was locking everyone else out to keep him safe.
He gave him a lift back to our house in Klein Windhoek and drove off. Over coffee we all laughed as Thomas related the story, which was becoming increasingly humorous in the light of the day.
What also became increasingly apparent was the kindness Ephraim had shown a stranger.
It brought to mind Gondwana’s ‘Tourism Heroes’ campaign, which was launched in 2023, aimed at tourist safety.
The campaign nurtures Namibian pride and community spirit to create a welcoming environment for visitors, who generate important revenue for our country.
Since its inception, many wonderful stories have been shared and many people have been celebrated as tourism heroes.
Let’s share the story of compassion and let’s find Ephraim, who is deserving of an honorary Gondwana tourism hero award for reaching out to someone in need.
Thomas made a mistake jotting down his number, so we haven’t been able to get hold of him to thank him and present him with a reward.
If anyone knows how to reach him, please contact us at (061) 427-243 or tourismheroes@gcnam.com
Let’s celebrate this tourism hero and let’s keep kindness alive in the world.
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