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Day 79: As a psychology student, I remember hearing about an experiment performed some decades ago in which researchers attempted to measure altruistic behaviour and some of the factors which drive it. They did this by “losing” hundreds of addressed envelopes under various circumstances; for example, some envelopes had stamps and others did not; some were addressed locally and others were addressed internationally.

Surprisingly (if you are a hard-line economist) but not surprisingly (if you are not) a sizeable proportion of these letters turned up. People had picked them up off the street, recognised that they could provide some help to a stranger, and mailed them.

In the first week of our trip, I left behind my camera case containing a memory card on a Norwegian ferry. There was no turning back and I had forgotten all about the incident, until yesterday, when I received this comment on the blog:

Hi

I think I have something that is yours

my father found a photobag onboard a ferry he works at, and in that bag there was among other thing, a memorycard with a lot of pic’s from your stay in Norway. you can contact me by mail, and I will send you the bag if you give me a address to send it to.

best reg.
Geir Faksvaag

I was floored by this, coming completely out of the blue. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been, given the propensity of people to surprise each other with acts of generosity.

Thank you, Geir and your dad. Kate and I really do appreciate you tracking us down and making contact. It is great to be the recipient of a random act of kindness.