Two days ago, I noticed a blue-and-white Amazon package sitting outside my neighbor’s front door.
The dude who lives there sleeps all day because he works all night, so I figured he simply missed it while returning home in the dark.
No big shake, right?
But then this morning, while taking Goose downstairs, I noticed that the package was still sitting there untouched.
I’d seen my neighbor’s car come and go, which meant he’d surely walked past it multiple times by now.
So I decided to do what any good neighbor would do and grab it before any porch pirate could.
As I bent down, squinting at the mailing label, I noticed the package was indeed at the right apartment — but it wasn’t for the right night-working neighbor who currently lives there.
It was addressed to Sandeep.
A friend and former neighbor from Nepal... who’d actually moved out of that same apartment more than a year ago.
Instantly, I smiled.
Though Sandeep no longer lives here in Texas, my mom still talks about him and the spicy food he used to bring over to her.
She and I both had a great connection with Sandeep and, albeit for a short two-year stint, he became one of my mom’s all-time favorite neighbors.
Ironically enough, at the end of 2024, I found myself in Kathmandu battling a terrifying MRSA staph infection — which ended up being one of the scariest chapters in all my travels.
I’ve yet to share the story of the 11 hospital visits it took to finally get that bastard of an infection under control, but eventually, I’ll do so.
Sandeep, after seeing me plea for medical advice from my nursing friends on Facebook, immediately reached out and was dead-set on trying to help.
Despite the 10-hour time difference, in the middle of the night, he was back in Dallas reaching out to his lifelong friends in Nepal — one of whom, lucky for me, was a doctor at a hospital just outside Kathmandu.
The morning I arrived at his friend’s hospital, there were literally hundreds of people already waiting ahead of me, but because of Sandeep’s friendship with the doctor, I was able to get in almost immediately.
As guilty as I felt skipping ahead of so many locals, I was equally as grateful to have someone willing to pull those kinds of strings for me.
I’ve got a pretty decent tolerance for pain, but that abscess — roughly the size of a nickel — produced the sharpest, most sensitive ice-picking pain I’d ever felt in my life.
Truth be told, I was scared and miserable.
I vividly remember the doctor looking at my lip through a magnifying glass before placing his hand on my shoulder:
“Mister Adrian, your infection is bad. But don’t worry… Sandeep has asked that I look after you like family.”
But he wasn’t doing so because I, or anyone else, had asked him to.
What I quickly learned — from Sandeep and the local friends I made while I was there — is that this is just how Nepali people operate when they care about you.
On the whole, they may not have much in terms of opportunity or material possessions, but what they do have, in spades, is an unwavering willingness to help.
In one of the scariest, most vulnerable moments of my life, Sandeep went above and beyond to make sure I didn’t feel alone inside his home country.
And that, my friends, is something I will never, ever forget.
I hadn’t seen or spoken to him since all that happened to me in Nepal, so I got a little giddy this morning over such an unexpected opportunity to reach out and return a favor.
After bringing the package upstairs, I snapped a photo and messaged Sandeep on WhatsApp.
Within seconds, he responded:
“Namaste, Adrian! Thank you! I have no idea how or why that got sent to Dallas?!”
Come to find out, he and his wife have been happily living in Arkansas for more than a year.
He asked about my mom and if she’d be willing to hang onto to the package until he made his way back down to Texas.
“Of course, brother.” I told him.
Then, because I’d had such a sweet connection with both his mom and dad during one of their visits to Dallas, I asked how his parents were doing back in Nepal.
And that’s when Sandeep shared news of the greatest delivery of all.
As he went on to message, his parents aren’t in Nepal — they’re actually with him now… in Arkansas.
Because this past Friday, Sandeep and his wife welcomed their very first child into the world.
A beautiful baby boy named Neyo.
In true Nepali fashion, Sandeep’s parents have already flown over and will now spend the next six months living with — and helping raise — their grandson.
I gotta be honest, though I don’t have kids of my own, that old-school “It takes a village…” way of living is something I’ve always deeply admired.
Modern life, especially in America, has all but diminished this type of familial bonding and interconnectedness.
It’s a shame — everything back home feels incredibly individualized and isolated.
Meanwhile, in so many other parts of the world, families still depend on one another and function as a unit.
Yes, often out of necessity — but equally out of loyalty, honor, and respect.
It’s both humbling and beautiful to witness.
So…
One Amazon misdelivery later, I finally get the chance to return a favor to Sandeep… a former neighbor turned friend who’d bent over backwards to help me while I was sick, scared, and alone in Nepal.
Only now, he’s the one on the whirlwind adventure — in my country — alongside his wife, his parents, and his perfectly delivered baby boy, Neyo.
With Gusto,
Adrian
Help me spread these stories showing people that there is, indeed, still so much good in the world. 🙏🏼🌎
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