Kindness

Here is something you won't see in the article that claims KL is the third rudest city in the world. A few weeks ago when I was moving apartments, one of the things I needed to do, was fix my motorbike. It's basically been sitting idle since a rather unpleasant crash I had back in October. So I had a dead battery to start with. I had no trouble getting dirty and fixing that myself, even if I did get wierd looks from everyone in the garage who saw me up to my elbows in grease, dirt, and bike parts. Unfortunately, after I got the battery issue sorted, it still wouldn't turn over when I tried to start it. (JoJo, this project was one of my elephants... )

So, I had reached the limit of my capacity for fixing bikes, and needed outside assistance. THe problem was, it was sitting on the 4th floor of my apartment building, and it would need to be walked to the nearest bike shop, or driven there on the back of a truck. I didn't really know who to ask about this. So I stopped into a little convienence store also located in the building and asked the man who owned the store with his wife if he had any suggestions on where to take it, as I knew he drove a bike as well. He asked me to bring him the keys and said he would call his friend to take a look at it. His friend came by in 15 minutes flat and told me the carburator was dead. Needed a new one. They took the bike to the shop for me, fixed it, paid for it, brought it back and held on to the keys and the reciept until I could come by and get it, which took another four weeks because of all the traveling lately.

Never once did they ask me for extra payment for doing all of this. The shop charged me an absolutely reasonable rate for the part and the labor (which most likely would have been higher had I taken it in myself), and that was it.

There was absolutely no reason for this man, his friends, or his family to go out of their way to help me like this, they just did. It was kindness for the sake of kindness. And while yes, I become exasperated with some of the less then considerate behavior I sometimes witness here in Malaysia, things like this remind me that this is a country full of very very kind people.

People like this exist everywhere in the world, it's just too bad that they are the ones we hear the least about when we turn on the TV.