What it means to really care to talk to someone

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?