Have you heard of the five love languages?
Quality time, Acts of service, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch, and Receiving Gifts.
It’s said that people feel love in five different ways, and usually a person has one that is higher than the others.
If Thailand has a love language, it is gifts.
From the day we arrived in Thailand, we’ve been showered with gifts from everyone we have interactions with. We had heard that it’s an important aspect of Thai culture to give gifts to show appreciation. And the people of Ban Kai school demonstrated it to us above and beyond what we had imagined.
Here are some examples from over the month…
+ Our friend Pee Pai would stop by our living place often just to bring us bananas and other things.
+ Most evenings, the kitchen staff and various teachers would surprise us with hot-cooked meals.
+ The youngest students share their street food with us as we played in the school yard.
+ Kru Nui gave us amazing Thai snacks for our breaks every single day.
+ The secondary students gave us oranges and other fruits during our bike ride.
+ Kru Dang gave us shell necklaces and heart-shaped donuts on Valentine’s Day.
+ Sumo’s mom made us bamboo sticky rice when we came over to stay at her house.
And so many other times…
So we knew that when it came time for us to say goodbye, we would have to do our best to come up with something good to give to show our appreciation to our friends here.
And so the gift giving battle began.
Every gift we gave anyone was reciprocated by them giving another gift to us in return.
+ We made cookies and Valentines for the staff. Then a few days later, during our goodbye party, the director of the school gave us beautiful hand-made Thai elephant purses.
+ We made Kru Dang (our host) a scrapbook/journal of pictures and memories from the month. Then the next day he hand-made cards for each of us.
+ We gave flowers to Sumo’s mom for letting us stay at her house for 2 nights. Then she immediately invited us inside for red bean and coconut milk desert.
+ We gave flowers to Kru Nan, one of the teachers who spent a lot of time with us this month. Then he showed up later that day with six beautiful Thai hair pins for us.
+ We invited some of our favorite secondary students to dinner on our last night. Then they gave us bracelets and key chains and hand-made cards the next day before we left.
+ We gave flowers to Pee Pai. Then she gave us each a pair of earrings.
+ We gave our friend Sumo dinner. Then he gave us a bag of snacks for our travel day.
+ Every day we gave hugs to the little girls on campus. Then the day we left they gave us pieces of candy.
I’ve learned so much about hospitality and generosity from the wonderful people of Thailand. I’ve been learning that the value of a gift is not in the price, but in the appreciation demonstrated by the giver. I have been so blessed to get to give and receive love from our Thai friends through the language of gifts.
“The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
–2 Corinthians 9:6-7
