Dava, the sweet girl I met as a preschooler, is all grown-up like me. :) She has a husband and a sweet little boy of her own. They recently returned from an exploratory to Thailand to see if they can move there in the near future. They really want to go to Thailand to live in community with the people there and just make friendships and impact people. I love that…talk about a BIG adventure! Their adventure trumps my 52 little adventures 100 times over. I love that about them, they have shown time and time again that they are willing to go out on a limb. Love Dava–she's great!
She wrote me an email last week after my tipping experience and I wanted to share with you her story.
Dava said,
Thai version of a taxi, called a Tuk Tuk, to get around. Our friend
here knows a Tuk Tuk driver, Eak, whom we often call to give us rides,
and last Sunday he gave us a ride across town to a Bible study. When we
got there, he told us we owed him 100 baht (about $3… everything is
very cheap here!), but we only had a 500 baht bill. He didn't have
change, and since we wanted to pay him, we told him to take the 500
(about $15) and keep the change as a tip. He refused to take that much,
though, and we ended up getting a ride home from him as well and
instead paying him 250.
We later found out from our friend that Eak's wife
has a benign tumor that keeps coming back and is causing her pain. They
would like to get the tumor removed but do not have enough money to pay
for it. Eak told our friend that it meant a lot to him that we were
willing to give him 500 baht since that would have greatly helped pay
for the surgery. After finding this out, we decided to once again tip
him generously after our next ride, although not too much or he
wouldn't accept it! Last night he drove us across town for 200 baht,
and we paid him 300 for it. It is only a few extra dollars to us, but
to him that extra 100 baht could make a big difference."
I love that Dava shared this story with me. What a difference she and her family made in that family's life. It inspired me and I hope it inspired you as well. If any of you, sweet readers, end up joining me on an adventure–please email me at thetinytwig(at)gmail(dot)com. I will feature your story as well as a link to your blog in a future post. Your adventures are magical and I love reading about them!