Most of the times, I feel that I need to do something big or to become someone in order to be able
to do something meaningful or something that matters. But, it makes me really surprised sometimes how very tiny things
I do could make someone's day better.
Lately,
I'd been feeling super stressed at work—too
many projects on my plate with many competing timelines. I got too stressed
that I wanted to take a long break to do 3-6 months of hiking a long distance
trail like Appalachian trail or PCT; or leave all these behind and become a
recluse or a hippie. I was thinking, "What's the point of
all this? We are all screwed anyway, right? I'm not gonna be able to do
anything to help anyone, at least not in this world."
Very
luckily for me, in the past two days, I got to leave the office! I was out with
an international consultant in a community outside of Yangon to pre-test survey tools. To be able to be out
of office for two full days, I worked 13 hours the day before so that I did not
have to worry about the deadlines for some other deliverables.
It
is one thing to see tabulated data, and read transcripts
of interviews and focus group discussions but it is a whole different story when you really
talk to people and get to interact with them in a community. Many of our social
research projects are carried out nationwide or in many different parts of
the country. It is quite fascinating to learn so much about all these
different communities—their diverse ways of life and many different practical issues at community level.
In the past two days out in the field, all
these people we interviewed were super amazing. They were so hospitable to us.
They were so generous with their time and they just really wanted to treat us
so well regardless of how poor they are. (That is, a family of five, a
husband and wife with 3 young children, live on approximately $3 a day.) The house we visited has no furniture. She laid down a mat for us, and asked someone to go buy two bottles of juice for us from a nearby shop.
They were so happy
that we cared to know about their life as we asked so many
questions. No matter how humble we were and how down-to-earth we were, our interviewee knew for sure that we came from a very different socio-economic background than hers. Before we took off, the woman said, "It's so lucky that you came here (to her house.) There is no way for me to come across and to be
able to interact with such well-educated people like you."
All
we did was stealing 2.5 hours of her time for the day and she was grateful we
cared to know about her and her family. A few of her relatives heard that she
got guests in her house so they stopped by to see us. We also interviewed a
school head of a primary school, who treated us with lunch she cooked and
brought for us. She was informed from the township education office that we
were visiting her school.
Even
though these people would be considered materially poor, they are rich in love and
kindness. They are so happy and content with what they have—they gave me hope
and faith in humanity once again.
Both
my colleague and I were so grateful to these people and their heart-warming generosity. In the past two days, on
our way back in the car, two of us had so much fun talking about our adventures in the
U.S. visiting some beautiful national parks, about people who helped us in our
life in great ways, about people who inspire us, about books we read and about
what we want to do with our lives.
When
we are really open and care to talk to someone or anyone, we can really have
meaningful connections with anyone. Isn't it so wonderful?
