Endearing Moments of Hospitality

The kindness of strangers.

15 May 2017

1 minute

One thing I really love about Philippine culture is their commitment to hospitality and helping strangers. Here’s a recent example (about 30 minutes ago in fact).

Expecting to buy drinking water from my usual small store, I scramble out of a tricycle carrying two empty water containers but the shop is closed. From nowhere a man appears and takes my containers and fills them in a shop nearby.

Does he own the shop next door? No! Does he own the original store? No! Actually, I’ve never seen him before in my life. He plonks 40 litres of water at my feet and returns to an old chair among his friends on the other side of the road, waving as the tricycle pulls away home.

Little endearing moments of hospitality.