Thanks Moazzam!

-continued from previous post-

First things first - cancel the credit card. Firefighting mode done, let's look for
that wallet.

Called the airline, nothing. Called the airport, still nothing. Slight glimmer of hope, they said that it takes 24 hours for a clean sweep of their satellite offices, but to me, that's just prolonging the agony.

I called the Heathrow office 2 days later, and, by Jove, someone had registered my wallet as found! A certain Mr. Khawaja had left his phone number with the airport authorities, and said that he had my wallet. So I immediately called the number, had a good talk with Moazzam Khawaja, and agreed to meet him in one of the tube stations outside the city.

After verifying that it was indeed I trying to claim my wallet, he handed everything to me, without a single cent lost! He works at the airport running a private car service, and he picked up the wallet in the parking lot dedicated to private carhires, where I must have dropped it as I boarded my car ride.

Trying to keep a grown man from crying in one of the busy streets of West London, I had to switch gears and gave Moazzam my standard CS hospitality gift: a replica jeepney. He said thanks, and simply requested to pray for his family.

I would like to think that I had racked up good karma points while in CouchSurfing but to have something like this happen to me is wildly unimaginable. So much gratitude, much thanks to Moazzam, and most of my trip wouldn't have been such an awesome experience if it weren't for him.

There is much to celebrate - that in this day and age, little acts of kindness steers our faith back to the human side of humanity. I'm normally overwhelmed by kindness by the end of my trip, but to start a trip with such a rollercoaster experience, I was sure that the next three weeks would be beyond awesome.