Come for dinner

My husband's (pre Nargis) story (names and places deleted to protect the family):

"While eating at a nearby restaurant I was approached a local guide. We discussed the normal tourist questions. Then he invited me to dinner at his home the following night and asked whether I would like chicken or beef. I said I preferred chicken (not having had a reasonable piece of beef in Asia in the last 3 years) and we made a time for the following night. His house was in walking distance of where I was staying.

At the airport the day before I had eaten some Simosas which had given me an upset stomach. Later after a scanty meal at the restaurant I was violently ill. The following afternoon still feeling queasy I went back to the restaurant and left a message cancelling my dinner invitation with my new friend and his family that night. I said I would catch up with him at the restaurant the following afternoon.

The following afternoon I met him at the restaurant again. He had misunderstood my message and thought that I was to have dinner with him that night. I could see that he was particularly keen for me to meet his family and despite the rumblings in my stomach went home with him.
As soon as I was seated his wife brought out a table full of various dishes - the prize one being a beef curry. His two young children gathered around to watch. Eager not to offend my host I ate as much as I could, all the while wondering how the spicy accompaniments would treat my battered stomach. It was beautifully prepared food and surprisingly not as spicy as much of the Thai food I was used to. So I did the meal justice. He showed me through his home. It was perfectly kept despite the dirt floors. There was next to nothing in the rooms and no operating electrical appliances (another story). I noticed that the generator was missing from the diesel motor.

He told me that he had sold the generator the day before for $15. He had paid $85 for it new last year and had been hoping for $40. But no one was interested. He said they were only interested in getting a bargain and profiting from his misfortune. I asked why he ended up selling to an Indian secondhand dealer for just $15. He said he needed the money urgently.
I asked why.
He said: Do you really want to know? I said yes.
He said that after inviting me to a chicken dinner his wife had pointed out to him that they didn't have the money to buy the ingredients. The dinner to impress me was more important than electricity to him (another story!) and so he sold the generator to the secondhand dealer who had been pestering him. As it was he received only $14 as he had to pay for transport of the generator to the dealer.

They bought 500g of chicken for $4 and various vegetables and condiments for the meal. When he heard I was not coming to dinner he and his family ate it. They have no refrigeration. It was the first meat they had had in months. Then, thinking I was to be there for dinner the following night, he then bought 500g of beef for $4 and his wife prepared another meal.
When I heard this I was speechless. Through my ignorance I had caused this family great hardship. They had already suffered greatly. I was rocked to my core. For the first time I could see that despite the best intentions in the world my western values coloured everything I saw and heard."