“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
—Matt
Free stuff is worth a lot
When we have visiting American teams come to help us overseas, we give them a welcome pack of free little items. Phone numbers to call if lost, postcards to mail to family, a re-usable grocery bag and a little pack of Kleenex to keep on hand that can work as toilet paper. You can tell a lot about a society by what they give you for free. I know it has a cost for someone, but it can reflect an attitude of abundance, giving and connecting with one another.
As we have traveled through many countries for work, it isn’t assumed that you could use the bathrooms for free at gas stations or public rest stops. Sometimes there is a guard at the entrance that you must pay, at others a turn style gate where you drop your coins in to use the bathroom. In some countries that provide “free” restrooms, they don’t provide toilet paper, hand soap, etc., you are expected to provide your own.
It made me remember a day that I was running errands around my small Hoosier town to buy some needed items and grabbed a free sample of candy on my way out of the shop. I then went to the hardware store to buy some doll rod and picked up their free calendar for the new year. I know these free items cost the businesses something, but it demonstrates the goodwill and relationship many businesses desire to have with their customers and friends.
Though I know it can be driven by marketing and sales strategy, I think providing “free” items in the public and private sector, gives a lot more to a society than we could imagine. When you get to the point when you no longer expect to find toilet paper in bathrooms, it says a lot about the direction and attitude of your community.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
