Inclination

I continue to be astounded by the generosity of people from the East - they seem inclined to be hospitable...this evening we stopped to pick something up from a member of the community.  They asked if we would wait to have tea after sundown.  We felt compelled to oblige. 

The next thing I know, the husband and wife began scurrying around the kitchen preparing all kinds of stuff.  They seemed to be in a race against time, opening and closing cabinets, desperately looking for food to feed their "guests."  That was the kicker - technically we weren't guests...but I suppose that's the difference - for this Indonesian family, once we crossed the threshold, no matter what the reason, we were guests.

This reminded me of a similar situation in Wadi Bani Kharoos in Oman when we visited a family we were meeting for the first time that shared everything until their cupboards were literally bare.  I remember the women slicing oranges, making bread, tea, fish soup, and insisting that we eat while they just sat watching us.  That kind of generosity is hard to come by in these parts.

As they served us the "tea" - the husband kept apologizing, saying that they weren't prepared and that they were so sorry that they could only offer us a small appetizer.  In 15 minutes, they had prepared a spread - dates, roti, honey, ful, pita, and of course tea. The roti was delicious - very flaky and the ful had a had an Indonesian twist.    

As I sat eating, I just kept thinking that there's a lot we could learn from the "third world."  People that we harldy knew, graciously welcomed us into their home without hesitation.