Pay It Forward

One good and bad thing about being an expat is that you don't have your family around to depend on for all of life's curveballs. Instead, you depend on your friends and acquaintances to help you through the tough times. Something that has struck me here is how many opportunites one has every single day to help others. I think I could honestly spend 40 hours a week doing kind deeds for others. When I was in Atlanta, I might have done one nice thing for someone else only about once a month. Part of the many opportunities we have here are because we are more involved in a church, so we hear about more needs. But I also believe that I am in a more "giving" mindset here. Because we as expats are somewhat removed from the US rat race and are all so vulnerable without our major support network here, people are more open about their problems and where they need help. I really have time to think about my friends and how I can help them rather than just racing to the next function. I will also note that I do have more time to help because I don't have a full time job, but I hope that when I return to the States I will remember that work should not be the only thing that fills my time.

I am giving the following example not to toot my own horn, but to show how easy it is to work giving into your everyday life. I had heard about someone who just had surgery so I offered to make her a meal. I went shopping and prepped some of the stuff yesterday. Today I babysat from 8-4pm. On my way home I picked up a few more food items and then started cooking. I have an easy chicken recipe that also doubles well, so since I was at it, I doubled the recipe and gave some to a single friend here who I know eats a lot of Ramen noodles and might like a home cooked meal. As I was driving to drop the food off I realized that I was close to a friends house who was about to walk 15 minutes in the rain to meet up with us for drinks. I gave her a call, swung by here house and picked her up instead. All this to say, I only put out a little more effort and hopefully helped three other people have a better day!