The last time a foreigner posted something about the Great Wall of China, the back story of Dorian Murray, the 8-year-old American boy who was then stricken with cancer, moved many netizens to give in to his request to post photos of themselves in front of the iconic Chinese landmark.
This time, it’s a Kenyan woman who dreamt of going to China. Using Photoshop, Seve Gat posted on her Facebook page four images spread over six days that makes it appear that she went to China. But because the digital enhancement was not an expert’s work, people who saw her posts commented that it was obviously the result of using a software and she did not really go to China.
On Feb. 28, Gat posted a photo of herself with Kenya Airways plane on the background saying she left Kenya to visit China, reported Mashable. This photo was shared 618 times and elicited 285 comments. The first comment by Kendi Daniel that “yur dream shall come true” proved prophetic enough.
Her next post, dated March 1, had her standing on a mountainside wooden footpath. The next day, March 2, had Gat on The Great Wall of China. Finally, on March 4, she posted a photo with a group of tourists and a Chinese landmark on the background, saying it was her last day in China.
However, a businessman, Sam Gichuru, a growth hacker at Kuhustle.com, saw Gat’s images online and was touched by it that he raised money and sponsored her real trip to China. Gat, though, is still preparing for the trip as she is still applying for a passport.
In the meantime, Twitter users did their own Photoshopping and made Gat travel elsewhere. There are photos of the young Kenyan in India beside a woman in sari, with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in the U.S., in outer space, on Mars and in Egypt with the pyramids as background.
On Thursday, Gat posted that she met Gichuru at Nailab to update him on the progress of her trip to China. She shared that last week, she applied and got her birth certificate which she would use in her passport application. Gichuru also got her into kuhustle.com, an online community and marketplace of freelancers in Kenya, an internship as a project manager.