2 . Fifteen years ago, when darkness used to fall in Yobe Nkosi, a remote village in northern Malawi, children did their school homework by candlelight: There was no electricity. But that started to change in 2006, when villager Colrerd Nkosi finished secondary school in Mzimba some 40 kilometers away, and returned home, and found he could no longer live without power.

Aged 23 at the time, Nkosi soon figured out that a small river past the house where he grew up had just enough force to push the pedals on his bicycle. He created a generator (发电机) that brought power into his home. Word spread quickly among brick houses and neighbors began paying regular visits to charge their mobile phones. “I started getting requests for electricity and decided to upgrade,” said Nkosi.

With no previous training, he turned an old fridge compressor (压缩机) into a water-powered turbine and put it in a nearby river, generating electricity for six households. Today, the village is supplied by a bigger turbine.

The users pay no fee for the power but give Nkosi some money for maintenance — slightly more than $1 per household per month. “The electricity is basically free,” Nkosi said, speaking in local Chichewa. He admitted that the maintenance income was too small to cover repair costs, which he mainly funded from his own pocket.

Despite the challenges, he was determined to expand his mini electricity network to surrounding areas. “Once more villages and schools have electricity, people will no longer cut down trees for charcoal (木炭),” he said. “Students will have a lot more time to study.”

As dusk settled over Kasangazi Primary School, groups of learners rushed into a classroom for a night-time study session. “Before we had electricity here, we used to use candles to study,” said student Gift Mfune, sorting through a pile of textbooks on his desk. “Now, we all have no excuse but to pass our examinations,” he laughed. Courtesy of Nkosi, the building is the only school with power out of 17 others servicing the area.

3 . I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labelled (贴标签) everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

The war broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming, “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it.

From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled (爬) under her covers, sobbing.

Obviously, that was something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.

Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I was so buried in my work that I even didn’t noticed Kate had sat up.

She was watching, her tears dried and her expression showed her disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”

Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the key to living together, giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

A Mother’s Day Surprise

The twins were filled with excitement as they thought of the surprise they were planning for Mother’s Day. How pleased and proud Mother would be when they brought her breakfast in bed. They planned to make French toast and chicken porridge. They had watched their mother in the kitchen. There was nothing to it. Jenna and Jeff knew exactly what to do.

The big day came at last. The alarm rang at 6 a.m. The pair went down the stairs quietly to the kitchen. They decided to boil the porridge first. They put some rice into a pot of water and left it to boil while they made the French toast. Jeff broke two eggs into a plate and added in some milk. Jenna found the bread and put two slices into the egg mixture. Next, Jeff turned on the second stove burner to heat up the frying pan. Everything was going smoothly until Jeff started frying the bread. The pan was too hot and the bread turned black within seconds. Jenna threw the burnt piece into the sink and put in the other slice of bread. This time, she turned down the fire so it cooked nicely.

Then Jeff noticed steam shooting out of the pot and the lid starting to shake. The next minute, the porridge boiled over and put out the fire. Jenna panicked. Thankfully, Jeff stayed calm and turned off the gas quickly. But the stove was a mess now. Jenna told Jeff to clean it up so they could continue to cook the rest of the porridge. But Jeff’s hand touched the hot burner and he gave a cry of pain. Jenna made him put his hand in cold water. Then she caught the smell of burning. Oh dear! The piece of bread in the pan had turned black as well.

5 . As the saying goes, “One good turn deserves another.” Liz’s life was changed forever over the course of that year. It all started with a single act of kindness towards two strangers who walked into the diner where she works early one morning.

After they fought a horrible fire for 12 hours, Tim and Paul stepped into the 130Diner for breakfast. When the time came to pay the bill though, they were in for a surprise. The young waitress who had served them had overheard their conversations and paid their bill, leaving a sweet message on their check instead, “Your meal is on me today. Thank you for serving others and running into the places everyone runs away from.”

Touched, the two firefighters shared her kind deed on social media where it quickly went viral. And that was when they found out the true story of the beautiful waitress who had paid for them. Liz Woodward had been struggling to make ends meet for the last few years after her father suffered a brain disease that left him paraplegic (瘫痪的). Determined to help the woman who had shown such kindness even if she was suffering, they set up a campaign to raise $10,000 for a wheelchair-accessible car for her father. The donations, however, did not stop pouring in when the campaign ended. Having heard of her kind deed, Mobility Ventures, which made the wheelchair-accessible car, refused to take the money and gave the family one for free as a Christmas gift.

Liz couldn’t be too grateful to the two firefighters and many strangers who have reached out to help her, saying, “The kindness and generosity the campaign supporters and Mobility Ventures have shown is really incredible, and I hope this brings hope to others in similar situations, and inspires people to help those in need in any way possible.”

7 . Aron Ralston was a pretty normal guy, but he always had an extremely adventurous desire to travel and see the world. During his childhood, his family moved to Denver, Colorado, a place offering many opportunities to climb mountains, explore, and eventually become the adventurer he’d always wanted to be. Back in 2003, Ralston was climbing in the remote, mountainous area of Southwestern Utah, when the unthinkable happened: Aron got stuck in a crevice (裂缝) in the rocks and pinned by a big stone that weighed over 360 kilograms. The weight of the rock crushed his arm, and he was pinned by it. Aron took photos of his bad situation (which was going to get a lot worse), hoping rescue teams (救援队) would know where he was and came to remove the rock so that he could get out and home safe.

But rescuers never came. Aron waited for them for days till he lost his hope. He knew he had to do something. He was 18 meters above the floor of the valley where he was pinned in, and he had a pocketknife. He made what must have been one of the most difficult decisions of his life: to cut his own arm in order to survive. Aron cut the lower part of his arm off, having to wrench (扭动) his forearm against the big stone to break the bones, and then got himself down to the bottom of the valley, where he would begin to walk and search for help. Luckily, help arrived in the form of a helicopter (直升机) that spotted him, covered in blood. Aron had tied off the wound to keep himself from bleeding to death pretty successfully and would eventually make it out alive.

Ralston went on to become an inspiring speaker and continued to travel and climb mountains—he didn’t let an incident that forced him to cut his own arm off, stop him from doing what he really loved.

9 . My 10-year-old Donna said, “Mom, I made a new friend at school today. Can she come over tomorrow?” Donna was a shy girl and I wanted her to make some friends to bring her out of her shell.

“Sure, honey, that sounds great,” I said, thinking back to my own best friend, Lillian. We lived across the street from each other in Washington Heights, New York. We met at the age of 10, too. Like my daughter, I was shy, but Lillian drew me out. She was one of the friendliest people in school, with shiny black hair and a mile-wide smile.

In senior high school, Lillian went on a trip to Florida. This was the first time we had to be away from each other for a few days. “I’ll be back soon,” she told me. But three days later, Lillian’s sister told me that she had fallen into a river and hadn’t come out any more. Soon, my family moved to New Jersey. Whenever I thought of her, tears came into my eyes.

The next day Donna brought her new friend home. “Hi, Mrs Loggia,” the little girl said. Her hair was so shiny and black and she shot me a big smile. “My name is Laura.”

My daughter’s new friend was so much like Lillian. I was still puzzled (迷惑) when Laura’s mom came to pick her up later that afternoon. I opened the door to let her in. “Judy!” she cried. “It’s me, Lillian’s sister, from Washington Heights.” Yes, my daughter’s friend looked familiar. She was Lillian’s niece (侄女).