More kindness...

Today I went to the bank to see if I could deposit a check from my account in the U.S. (The answer is yes, I can, but it will take 15 days to clear--in case you were wondering.)

But this is not about money; it's about the extraordinary kindness and gentilty of my banker. When I realized I had forgotten my bank book, and moreover I am still without my passport and alien registration card until next week so I was entirely without identification, I made to leave. I assumed I had no further claim on the banker's time. (Meanwhile, I knew, though the banker didn't, that I was down to small change in my wallet and facing another cashless weekend.) Instead, he motioned for me to sit down again and asked how he could help. He looked me up in the computer system, and fetched the copy of my passport that the bank had on file. He gave me an extra photocopy of my passport and told me always to bring identification in the future. When he asked for my phone number and I didn't have one, he let me put my friend's cell phone number down. He told me that it would take some time to cash my travellers checques and got me a cold drink while I was waiting. He made the greatest possible effort to communicate clearly with me using his moderate English skills, which I was extremely grateful for, where someone less patient might not have made the effort. He spent at least half an hour helping me without complaint, and when it was all over, he presented me with a box of soap, and said he would see me the next time.

And while this is an outstanding example of kindness, it is by no means the exception but rather the rule in how I have been treated by everyone I interact with. Having no useable language skills is a new experience for me, and it is extremely humbling and at times very frustrating. However, the people I meet have kept me in a constant state of gratitude.

I guess what I'm trying to do by recording this is to somehow offer thanks. I can't exactly go up to each one of them with a thank-you card (though don't think I haven't considered it). I hope that blogging my gratitude will get it on some kind of cosmic gratitude registry. Or maybe it will just make an impression in the minds of a few people who read this, that they will carry when they meet foreigners on their own turf, of just how much a small kindness can mean when you are far from home.