It was one of those ironies of travel:  you eat all sorts of street food in all sorts of countries, and then when you get to one of the cleanest places on Earth - Singapore - you contract food poisoning.   You spend all night sick as a dog in a hostel (one of the most expensive in Southeast Asia, unfortunately), sitting in a hallway rather than lying in bed because you need to be near the bathroom.  It is a long night, and it will be a long three days of recovery.

Singapore's subway (which I used to travel to and from the hostel)

The source of my food poisoning is unclear, though I suspect it came from a 7-Eleven on Sentosa Island.  But this isn't central to my story; Rosana and her fellow Filipinos are. 

Rosana and her compatriots were in Singapore to find work - better paying work than they were likely to find back home, work that made use of their degrees and skills.  They were go-getters, scouring the want-ads in each morning's paper and then embarking on interviews.  They were also a lot of fun.  Everyone in the hostel - there were around 80 of us from a score of nations - had observed their laughter and camaraderie.  They were entirely likeable.

In the three days before getting sick I had chatted with the Filipinos maybe two or three times.  Then on the day I got sick, I pretty much stayed in the hostel and to myself.  I was a ghost of my former self, hauling my body from bed to the lobby and then back to bed every couple hours or so.  I couldn't eat all day.

I couldn't eat most of the second day, either.

It was on this second day when Rosana and friends learned I was ill.  They asked what they could do.  To be more accurate, they suggested things they could do, including:  “We have a few packets of strawberry oatmeal in the kitchen.  That would be good for you after not being able to eat so long.”

Rosana proceeded to the kitchen.  I followed.   A food court was located just a couple blocks down the street, but in the past 48 hours I hadn't had the energy to go that far.  But the kitchen, where Rosana and friends had a stash of food, was doable.   I also found that their kindness - and not just the prospect of edible food - had produced a slight rise in my energy level.

Looking back a year later, I can't say that strawberry oatmeal is recommendable.  But that night, weak and wishing for caring company, it hit the spot.   So thank you, Rosana and friends, for sharing your food and for noticing when someone around you was sick.  Not everyone would have done that, especially when in a foreign country anxiously looking for work.

 This man in the foreground could be myself after food poisoning, though it's not.  But this is similar to how I would look in my dorm room, about ten hours after taking this photo on Sentosa Island.

Joel Carillet, chief editor of wanderingeducators.com, is a freelance writer and photographer based in Tennessee. He is the author of 30 Reasons to Travel: Photographs and Reflections from Southeast Asia. To learn more about him, visit www.joelcarillet.com.