the kindness of people.

There is something about mountain climbing that never fail to amaze. It’s more than the scale of the mountain or the difficulty of the trail. It is more than the fact that I was able to push myself and get to the top despite the many times I find myself thinking of giving up. No, it is more than experiencing nature that amazes me when I climb. It is the kindness of people who by all appearance have less than what we have.

You can have your fancy dinners and luxurious vacations. This view here is enough for me. The view up there is worth all the pain I have encountered going up. And this will not even be possible without the help of the locals who guided us and helped us reach the top.

When I think about it, I find myself ashamed. A lot of people looks down at people who lives in the hinterlands. They don’t have branded clothes, they don’t work in airconditioned offices and our “outfit of the day” alone would cost them their entire month’s income. Yet I find hinterland people amazingly kind and tenacious. They don’t have a lot i material things but they have more than what we can probably never have. Contentment.

When you go to a hotel, the people there give you their best service because you pay them to do so. Sometimes paying them is not even enough to get you a good service. In the mountain people let you in their house with a smile, they offer you whatever they can offer to make you comfortable. They don’t owe you that and yet they do it anyway. They don’t expect anything in return, they help you as best as possible even if it is an inconvenience to them.

 

In the city, you can’t just smile and greet people you don’t know. When you do, people give you strange looks and think you’re weird. In the hinterlands, you can smile at everyone and the people you meet greet you with courtesy regardless of who you are.

Lost? Don’t worry they will guide you themselves. Hungry with no food? They will offer you their best food and you don’t even have to pay for it. It is up to you of course if you want to give them anything. Although I think it would be an insult to them especially if they welcomed you as a guest.

We may have the best education and the most trendy things and we probably have more than what they have in material things but compared to them we are beasts who, too often, forget the values we’ve been taught while growing up. They are better humans than us, I guess.

*p.s:
I wanted to post pictures but wordpress won’t cooperate.*