That morning, Mike agreed to show me how to use Rankmath to edit posts on WordPress. Later, he changed the date to Wednesday, explaining he had to go to the INEC office. Mike mentioned his PVC, and I decided to visit the INEC office to see if I could exchange my temporary card for the permanent one.
It's time to vote for the president of my country. The country can go to prosperity or poverty depending on the president. However, voters often make mistakes when they vote and end up with the wrong president.
I had my temporary voter card but didn't follow through to get the permanent one. When Mike mentioned his PVC, I decided to visit the INEC office and find out if I can get a card here in Abuja.
I went with my friend, Richard, to the INEC office to register. Richard told me he did his online registration and had to undergo Biometric screening. We were late and were asked to return early the next day.
I was told I wouldn't be able to get a permanent card in Abuja, and that I would have to ask my family in my hometown to get it and waybill it for me. I was not allowed to register for a new card either.
Richard can't return to the INEC office with me since I had no business with them anymore. When he realized he might end up alone, he quietly asked if I would accompany him.
I hated having to be in one place for a long time, and returning the next day meant I would have to wait for him to queue and await his turn. If I were to choose between going with him and staying home, I would happily choose the latter. But I accepted to go with him because I understood how he would feel alone among people he doesn't understand and with unfamiliar faces.
If someone is in a situation he is unfamiliar with, he may withdraw into his shell. So, I went with him without expecting any form of reward only to be there to support him. I helped him make new friends by getting involved with the people we meet. We talked about books we've read, discuss authors who have inspired us, and changed our lives.
By the time the day was over, my friend had gotten comfortable with the folks we met. He got their contact details before we headed home.
Now, why I'm I boring you with this story? It's the #ecotrain that inspired it. For my banner design inspiration, I dug up an old post about the ECOTRAIN community.
The message embedded in that post explains how the ecotrain community was created to close the gap between doing something for someone or a cause, without necessarily expecting anything in return.
The full name of this ecoTrain is "ecoTrain Seva". " Service or Seva in Sanskrit (Punjabi: ਸੇਵਾ) is a service that is performed without any expectation of result or award for performing it. Such services can be performed to benefit other human beings or society." What is the ecoTrain in a nutshell!
It's right there. I accompanied my friend to a place with no intention of getting paid in cash or kind even when I would have said no to him. Besides, it was my birthday, and being under the scorching sun shouldn't be some form of celebration....should it? I swept away everything and choose to be there for him.
Just as the ecotrain had a driver whose role was to keep the train going by introducing interesting content ideas, I did the same in the company of my friend. I tried to keep his spirit alive first by following him as some form of support and second by making him comfortable around the few persons we found and interacted with
Which births my banner....Look below.
Design Source, ecotrain design Source
In my opinion, I had been lucky to find the original design on Canva because it gave me the perfect picture. I am choosing a car instead of a train for my journey description since that's the popular means of transportation we have here. The pathway of course represents the route we took to the INEC office. The ecotrain design added perfection to the whole theme. And what's the description?
"The vehicle that takes you to your dreams". In my opinion, that's what ecotrain is, since we found them, they have given us lots of ideas for our content to send our imaginations spiraling and into a thought-provoking mood.
Personally, there were Fridays I had no writing ideas and I remembered the ecotrain-dreemport collaboration and that lit up my darkest spirit... hehehe
When they said, they didn't want us to antagonize over what to write, they meant well because it worked for me. And yes, the ecotrain community did give out these lending hands without any expectations of any form.
In short, the ecotrain community understood that in the future the train will have lots of passengers and they made plans for this in advance. New drivers were introduced to have more eyes on the posts of the new passengers. It's amazing how each of our entries for the dreemport-ecotrain collaboration didn't lack eyes on them. Yes, we got to know one another too.
What about their desire to make the world a better place? If you have been here long enough you will agree, that this too had been done, and we are seeing the results. There are weeks I see a couple of posts on my feed from my friends participating in one topic or the other. And each one has been conversations that are aimed at making the world a better place.
Let me bring you back to where we started, I accompanied my friend, without expecting any reward right? Yeah. That's one of the ways we all can make the whole a better place too. By lending a helping hand to someone in need of support, without wondering if they will return the favor or not.
Do you think it's impossible to do that? Well, I thought so too until I stumbled on this post on the internet. 20 Ways to Give Without Expectations. I hope it gives you a change of heart.
Breathe..... without keeping you longer on this page, anytime you feel like adding or receiving value with no regard to rewards or favors, visit the ecotrain community and gather all the motivations that you need. Also, remember, the train will be there to take you to your dreams......Always.