The spring 2016 meeting of the Arkansas TCC Chapter was held on April 30 at Samantha’s. The topic of discussion was “random acts of kindness extended abroad.”
Included were courtesies from four corners of the world, including a village on the Mekong River on the border of Cambodia and Vietnam. Travelers were stuck with a visa snafu but were provided by this kind community with food, sleeping on the floor, sarongs sewn for us. The backdrop above the floor slept on in one house was a mural of the Twin Towers – we were there November 2002.
Another RAK involved decorating a tree in Myanmar (Burma) with flowers, climbing out on limbs for full effect. And kudos to the TCC member in the Phillipines that showed their travel kin true hospitality, complete with suckling pig – a welcome to be remembered.
Greek hospitality is legend – Northern Greece, Epirus – at the Albanian border where a locked gate disappointed these travelers at River Styx/Hades. One call relayed to another local and a private tour ensued. Even Arkansans opened a closed Crystal Bridges Museum special exhibit with again a private late-night tour – gratis.
Stories from Prague, France and New Zealand related to keys to locked cars, courtesy transport gratis, even six hours away. A total of 18 stories of RAK – and in some cases random acts of luck – gave creedance to faith in humanity worldwide.
The fall 2016 Arkansas Chapter meeting will also be at Samantha’s on Nov. 5. In late July or early August
a special presentation will be given at the home of Debra and Denny Grandle – by Denny, who is holding his book on New Guinea in the group photo above.
