WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
Description
How powerful is a heartfelt selfless act? Some say that the good we do always comes back to us. The unbelievable story of Apostolos Symeonidis shows how good deeds know no borders and live forever in the hearts of those they touched.
Tags
Credits
Field Reporter
- Anna-Maria Takaliou
Interviewee
- Apostolos Symewnidhs
Podcast Producer
- Magia Filippopoulou
- Andreas Pappas
Sound Designer
- Giwrgos Ramantanhs
Sound Editor
- Dhmhtrhs Papadakhs
Translator
- Apostolhs Karoulas
Voiceover
- Duncan Skinner
November 1980, I was going to start work as an employee, a customs agent. At that time, I was renting a home. I was twenty-four and, until then, I had lived with my parents. I found a studio apartment with a friend, which was in the basement of a building with a garden at the back, and to the left, there was a second door.
After a few days, I met the resident behind that door: he was a student from Africa, from South Sudan, and he was a really great guy. He didn’t cause a fuss when we were being rowdy in the house with our friends, etc. And, of course, we didn’t complain when he was a little noisy. The two houses were separated by a thin wall. He heard us, and we heard him when he was home.
He was a third-year medical student with a grant from his country of five thousand drachma a month. Three thousand were... He paid the rent. He had two thousand left, with which he tried to buy his books, because in those days they had to buy them, and so he had nothing left to live on at the weekends.
One day, when I got home, he knocked on the door. I saw him at the outer door with an envelope in his hand, looking pale, and he asked me if he could come in. Of course, I told him to come in and sit in the small living area we had – a sofa opposite the bed. He told me that his mother had died and that he hadn’t seen her for five years. What could he do? I asked him if he wanted to go back to his country, and he said, ‘Yes. I want to go’.
The next day, when I went to the office, I went to my boss and said to him, ‘I’m having money trouble’. He replied, ‘Don’t tell me how much you want, go next door to the accounts department and ask for whatever you need. You can pay it back gradually. We’ll take it from your wages’. I said, ‘Thank you very much’, and left.
I got some time off from my boss and went to talk with my friend, who had a ticket agency. I told him that he was from South Sudan and wanted to fly there and back, and that I would pay for it. And he says to me, ‘It costs 42,500 drachmas to fly down there, and he needs to go to Cameroon, he can’t fly to Sudan. From there, he’ll have to find his own way to Sudan’.
I was being paid 8,000 a month from work. When I went to the girl, in accounts, and told her I needed 42,500, she freaked out.
And she says to me, ‘How much! How will you pay it back, Apostolos? What do you need that much for?’ ‘I need the money, now’.
After about an hour, she came and gave it to me.
And then I went back to my flat. I knocked on Steve’s door and shouted for him. I said to him, ‘Steve, come here. It’s all OK. I found a ticket to get you to Cameroon, and from there you can make your way home’. Steve couldn’t believe it. He fell crying to his knees. And there, on his knees, he said, ‘You are my brother!’ Because he was all alone.
On Wednesday, I took Steve to the airport and left him there to catch his flight. He hugged and kissed me. ‘Thank you so much’. I was very happy, because I could help this person. Because I knew that there was a war going on there. I went back to the office on Thursday.
Every Saturday, I would meet up with some friends and go to a tavern. On the way, we always did the football pools. One of us did one column out of the four, and the rest did two.
Two matches were postponed, from the double column we had played, because it was snowing, and they couldn’t play. So, we only had to get eleven. When the matches were played on Sunday, we got ten out of the eleven! And the result of one in the double hadn’t come out yet. At the 93rd minute, the announcer came back and said, ‘We have one more result, which came after the 93’ minute. And it was that double! So, we had got four elevens! On Monday, we learned how much each of us would get; it was 42,500 drachmas!
I got the money the following week and gave it back to the office. And so, Steve left for his homeland and I didn’t owe anything to anyone. When my boss learned that I had returned the money, he called for me and said, ‘Apostolos, why did you pay the money back? Didn’t I say we would take it in installments?’ And I replied, ‘I was given the money, and I paid it back’.
It was three months before Steve returned from his country. As soon as he got his degree in medicine, his girlfriend came over, and, before they left, they had a baby, a boy. Eventually, Steve left with his girlfriend and his baby, to go back home, and I stayed behind to miss him. I hope he will always be happy, and I will always remember him. And I like to believe he thinks of me, too.