Hypothetical: You are on your way to target. You drive up and down the parking lot trying to find a close enough spot so that you don’t have to walk more than 30 yards into the store. You finally find one and park. Gather your belongings, lock your car, and start heading into the store. It’s a hot day in (add your city here) and you are walking fairly fast so you can get into the air conditioned store as soon as possible. As you cross the street and make your way onto the sidewalk, you see a man and woman who look confused and are trying to flag down a taxi. You pause for a moment and think, that stinks, and continue on your way towards the air conditioning. Before you make it into the store, the woman has approached you and is asking for help. She doesn’t speak English and you can’t understand a word she is saying. What do you do? Do you help her find a taxi? Do you try to converse until you can help her a little bit? Do you take her where she needs to go? Do you stand outside in the blazing heat and help her until the situation has been revolved? OR… do you say sorry and shrug your shoulders as you head into the store? I don’t want to make a judgement about all Americans here, but honestly, I can say that a large majority of the people would not be very helpful in this situation.
In the week I have been here, I have been learning a lot about generosity by living alongside the Thai people. Everyday there are people going out of their way to help us and show us that they are happy we are here. It’s amazing really, and I am dumbstruck half the time that they are so kind to strangers. Here are some examples of this:
1. During the race, there were many Thai people that we would ask how to get certain places and they would help us to get there, regardless of the fact that they spoke about 4 words of English.
2. Everywhere we go, people are smiling at us, saying hello, and many “wei” us to show respect as well (it’s the thing where you put your hands up to your face together and bow.
3. Brandon and I got lost on a bus the other day and as we were sitting in the middle of who knows where, not knowing how to get back, there were so many people who offered to help us. We were offered a ride to Bangkok in the back of a pickup truck (which was nice even though we didnt want to go to Bangkok), a man let us use his phone to call mark (even though we had the wrong number), and finally a bus which had finished it’s route for the day took us back to Ratchaburi free of charge.
4. This morning, we took a bus into town. A man on the bus knew a little bit of English and Mark and BRandon were talking to him. As we got out of the bus, we walked to the front to pay the driver. The man told us that he had paid for us already. So we offered to pay him back and he wouldn’t accept our money. Honestly?! Who just pays for 7 strangers who you’ve only been talking to for 5minutes. Thai people, that’s who.
So then Brandon and I started talking about why we think this is so; why Americans aren’t as generous as the Thai culture is. And Brandon made a good point (he does that a lot). He said that Americans are often not generous because we don’t think that foreigners have anything to offer us, but they just use our resources instead. How sad is that! We are kind to people based on what we get from them or what they can offer us. I want to challenge you in this. Become more aware of your interactions with other cultures. Go out of your way to welcome people from other cultures. You can have pride in America without making others feel unwelcome and unwanted. And this doesn’t just apply cross-culturally, you sometimes need to show kindness and be generous within your own culture. I don’t have much time to expand, my hour of internet time is running up, but I just wanted to give you all something to think about and show you what has been challenging me. So thank you too all the Thai people that have been so kind and taught me so much already in the 1 week I have been here. I look forward to learning more everyday!
