How many times does it take being invited in for tea in Central Asia before it gets old?

I’ve had a lot of these experiences, so far, and I’m still going strong.

We originally met this kid at the neighborhood water pump, hauling home about 8 gallons of water. What would have probably taken him 8 trips turned into one quick walk home as Jeroen and Maki (my Dutch and Japanese traveling companions through the Pamirs) pitched in with me to help the little dude out.

On arriving at his house, we were supremely pleased (but not overly surprised) to be invited in by mom and dad for tea and sweets and a brief chat about work opportunities and power failures in this remote Pamir town. The father works at repairing electrical systems through Murghab, so this was a more uplifting conversation for him than it would have been for many of the other locals.

Some cross-cultural communication, a bit of paging through a dictionary looking for the word I want, and bowl after bowl of milk tea. That’s what backpacking is all about, right?