Thais like to give gifts. Erin, one of the American teachers, read somewhere that when you receive a gift from someone here, you're supposed to give them something of comparable value.
Thais also give gifts if you've helped them out in some way. I've experienced this twice with Nummon.
One day after lunch, she handed me a pastry from the campus bakery. It was shaped like a bear's head, with a little icing face. She said, "Thank you for helping me." I had no idea what I had done, but I accepted it.
Nummon was out sick all last week, so I taught on my own and spent my afternoons cutting out new pieces for the bulletin boards instead of grading. On Thursday, I was catching up on test grading. I had a question about one kid's answer, and I turned around to ask her about it.
Before I could say anything, she thrust a carton of grape juice into my hands and smiled. "Thank you for helping last week. It's got lots of vitamin C, so you won't get H1N1 flu."
What a weirdly thoughtful thank-you gift, I thought to myself. I liked it.
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That sounds like something you would do, give someone grape juice to avoid the flu.
ReplyDeleteWe still need a skype date.