Cause and Effect:

How One Traveler Became a Travelers Aid

(Hollywood)—Eleven years ago, Sanford Ostiller and his wife were in Africa and had just completed six weeks of travel, including Botswana, Victoria Falls, a walking safari in Zambia, and driving safaris in Kenya and Tanzania.  It was their third time in Africa and they had flown on Zambian Airways (now out of business) from New York City to Lusaka, Zambia, via Monrovia, Liberia.

  They were on their way home when, at a stopover in Nairobi, it was discovered that the return flight time had been changed and Sanford and wife would have to stay overnight in Lusaka.  When they finally arrived in Lusaka, they were told that their one-time visa was of no use and that they’d have to obtain another one, before being allowed to leave the terminal.

  This was to cost a small sum, about 85,600 Zambian Kwachas, or $20, but they would only take it in Kwachas, and of course Sanford had none.  The immigration officer refused to release them in order to change their dollars.  The worst part of it was, they had a free room waiting for them at the Inter-Continental Hotel and no hope of getting out.

  Then to their rescue came a very well-dressed African man who, upon hearing of the problem, advanced Sanford the Zambian Kwachas for the visas.  Sanford and his wife thanked him profusely and asked him to join them for dinner at the hotel, where they would repay the money he’d advanced.

  He met them at the hotel and received his 85,600 Kwachas and again they asked him to join them for dinner.  He declined, explaining that he wanted to have dinner with his family, but that he would in fact join them for a drink.

  Sanford took his name and was surprised, as was the gentleman, to learn that the man worked for the same London-based company that had taken care of the Ostillers’ walking safari in South Luangwa National Park.  Sanford promised to write to the man’s boss in London about his kindness; that promise was an easy one to fulfill.  He had saved Sanford and his wife from having to sit up all night in a strange airport with no available seating at a time when a comfortable hotel room was quietly waiting.  Because of that spontaneous act of kindness, Sanford made up his mind that, when he returned home, he would join the Travelers Aid Society to help other lost or bewildered travelers.  He has been a member of the Los Angeles Travelers Aid since 1990, working at the LAX airport.

--Mark Zipoli (Adapted and reprinted with kind permission from the December 2000 International Travel News, Sacramento, Calif., David Tykol, Editor.)