Foreigners Unite

When you live in a foreign land it seems that other foreigners make a point of talking to you. Such is the case yesterday when I did my Hari Raya shopping at a local mall. I bought each of my schools two dictionaries for the mentees there to share with the students.  Then, for the Malay schools I added a food hamper, which seems to be the trend here.  Emerging with gigantic food hampers that took over my entire car, I was greeted by the security guard at the centre.  He helped me stuff these packages that were as big as passengers into the car, while asking me where you from?  He wanted to know where I was from and clearly wanted me to ask the same. When I did not, he asked me where I thought he was from.  No idea.  He looked a bit Asian, but I am not good at pigeon-holing people.  I was guessing various states in Malaysia when he said no, very far, very cold. He finally told me he was from Nepal.  Then he was asking me what I would do with all this food.  I explained who I was giving it to, and he thought that was a very nice thing to do.  I also had a huge sack of goodies for the mentees to share at our first TPD after the break. Reaching into those sacks, I pulled out one of everything there - chips, cookies, nuts, and dates, handed them to him. Hari Raya - a few days early, to my new friend as we acknowledged the greetings in our new home away from home.  He was tickled and took them happily.  He probably earns about the same amount of value that he received today - in a month.  I think I just did what I think the concept of Ramadan teaches. I know what it is like to be hungry; maybe not starving, but what I did was share; one solution regarding hunger. Now I have to shop again, somewhere else.