Undeserving

Once a month I teach a English conversation class at the local community center. My students consist of about 6-8 mothers and their children, aging 4-9. Most of the mothers don't care that much about speaking English themselves, but want to expose their kids at a young age. I never have a plan--I just show up and we go from there. We speak easily as much Japanese as we do English. Usually one of the mothers brings some English children's books and we try to keep the tykes' attention as long as we can.

At last week's class, I told them I was off to the Philippines, and would reward them with photos, stories and sweets at next month's lesson. Today, two of the mothers showed up at my door out of the blue with a gift bag containing: bug spray, band-aids, and some cookies. My heart melted. Then, as my favorite 5-year old wishes me "Have a nice trip", his mother hands me an envelope and says "we dont pay you for your classes, so here is some pocket money". The envelope contained about $100.