Human Connections
Real moments between people living abroad: a stranger who helped, a friend you lost touch with, someone you wish you had spoken to.
I told the potatoes thank you at the Mercado de Nuestra Señora de África
I stood in front of a mountain of potatoes at the Mercado de Nuestra Señora de África on Saturday morning and could not tell the old wrinkled ones from the new ones. The man behind the stall picked out the right ones, told me which to boil with the skin on, and slipped in a small jar of red mojo for free. I made them e...
Thank youCount seven, then go, said the older man at Playa La Paz
I stood in the shallows at Playa La Paz one Saturday morning for twenty minutes, unable to decide when to go in. An older man with a board under his arm said, count seven, then go. He stayed next to me for my first six waves and said nothing after except, bien. I came out and realised I had stopped being afraid of the...
OverheardI thought the island would feel smaller
At Nathon pier a young man stood by a very large suitcase and said to his friend, "I thought the island would feel smaller." His friend looked at the suitcase and said, "It is. You are just carrying too much." Neither of them laughed, which made it better. I was waiting for a ferry myself and I will admit I agreed with...
Thank youSomeone folded my laundry in the rain and I never found out who
It rained sideways on a Thursday afternoon in Penestanan while I was out, and my whole line of washing was in it. When I got home everything was folded on a chair on my porch, slightly damp, with a banana leaf on top. I counted my things and every one was there. I asked three neighbours and each said, not me, and smile...
Thank youI did not know paper tickets had to be validated on a Warsaw tram
I got on a Warsaw tram on Thursday morning with a paper ticket and no idea that it had to be validated on board. A woman next to me took my ticket without a word, held it up, and pointed at the validator by the door. A minute later two inspectors came through the tram. I would have paid a fine bigger than my dinner. I...
Thank youIs it normal for a taxi driver to tell you to take a cheaper one?
I got into a taxi on Al Reem Island one evening and asked the price to the Corniche. The driver looked at the meter, looked at me, and said, it will be cheaper if you walk to the next road and flag another one. I did. He was right, it was a third of the price. I rarely meet a man who talks himself out of a fare. I hope...
A small kindnessI carry a lighter now and I do not smoke
My scooter would not start at midnight in Haad Rin. Two men walking back from the beach stopped, pushed it a hundred meters up the hill, cleaned the spark plug with a rag and a lighter, and got it running on the fourth kick. They refused my money, got on their own bikes and rode away. I never found out what was wrong w...
Missed connectionWhat were you writing on Mount Phousi before sunrise?
I was counting the steps up Mount Phousi at 5.40 on a Tuesday morning and lost count at about two hundred, when you passed me on the way down with a yellow notebook under your arm. You nodded at me like we were old neighbours. I was the one panting and holding a banana. I wanted to ask what you were writing at that hou...
Thank youI practised my interview in bad Vietnamese and a stranger played the boss
The night before a job interview I sat on a bench on the Han River promenade at 8pm, practising my answers out loud in bad Vietnamese. An old man two benches down corrected my tones without being asked and then pretended to be the interviewer for twenty minutes. He asked three questions. He was tougher than the real on...
A small kindnessCold water along the bench at Wat Damnak
My phone was dead and my neck was sunburnt when I sat down at Wat Damnak at noon in April, at thirty nine degrees. A monk on the bench under the big tree moved over without a word and slid a bottle of cold water along the wood toward me. We sat for twenty minutes and said maybe six words each. Mine were thank you. His...
Thank youThank you for the water first, then the coconut
I was sick for three days in Sanur and walked the beach path every morning at seven because my room felt too small. The woman at the coconut cart started handing me a cup of water first, then the coconut, and she never added the water to the price. On day four I felt fine and told her. She clapped, twice, and gave me a...
Lost and foundLost: a brown notebook with a green rubber band near Kite Beach
Did anyone find a small brown notebook with a green rubber band, near Kite Beach on Saturday morning? The first page is a column of figures I could not rebuild from memory. I know, I should have taken a photo of it first, and I am embarrassed about that. It is only my monthly spending notes, but it took a long time to...
Thank youLost phone, found behind the orchids at Chatuchak
I dropped my phone near the plant section at Chatuchak Weekend Market on a Saturday and did not notice for forty minutes. When I came back along the same alley the stall owner held it up from behind a pot of orchids and pointed at the screen, which still showed my lock photo. She had kept it charged on a small cable. S...
Thank youNeeds more lime, said the note in my salsa jar
I went away for ten days in July in Arcadia and left a fragile row of tomato plants on the porch. When I got back they were green and every pot was full of water. A note taped to the door said, it was 115, I could not watch. I do not know which neighbor it was. I left a jar of salsa on the doorstep. It was empty and wa...
Thank youThank you for the palm leaf grasshopper in the coconut forest
The basket boat started to spin in the Cam Thanh coconut forest and I was sure I was going over. The boatman never stopped smiling. He steadied the oar with one hand and, with the other, pulled a palm leaf from the water, folded it three times and gave me a small grasshopper. I still have it on my desk. It has gone bro...
Thank youA grandmother pushed my money away and handed me another pupusa
I was alone at Palmarcito beach at lunchtime with no food when a family under a thatched roof waved me over and gave me a plate of pupusas with curtido. I tried to give them money, but the grandmother pushed my hand away and gave me another one. They asked about my country for an hour. Their questions were precise. How...
Thank youA stranger carried my keys up and down Hillcrest until she found me
I dropped my keys somewhere between a coffee shop and a bus stop in Hillcrest and did not notice for an hour. A woman who had picked them up found me by walking into every shop on the block with the keys held up, asking, is anyone missing these. She did that for forty minutes. When I walked in she said, thank god, and...
Thank youTo the woman who drove me to the clinic with one hand on my shoulder
I cut my foot badly on a rock near Garza one Tuesday afternoon and could not walk. A woman I had never met put me in her truck, drove the bumpy road to the clinic with the window down and one hand on my shoulder, and waited until the nurse had finished. Eleven stitches. She did not tell me her name. I limped for a week...
Missed connectionThe left one, you said without looking up from your mango sticky rice
I was trying to choose between two lanterns at the Friday walking street in Fisherman's Village, Bophut, one on the left and one on the right, while you stood beside me eating mango sticky rice. You said, the left one, without looking up. I bought it. It is on my balcony now and when the wind comes it swings and I thin...
Thank youTo the man in flip flops who pushed my car out of a pond in College Park
During an afternoon storm in College Park the road filled and my car stalled in the middle of a puddle that had become a pond. A man in flip flops waded out and pushed it to the curb by himself, standing in water up to his knees. He waved away my thanks and said he lived on the corner anyway. The storm stopped five min...
Thank youThank you for waiting on that corner with my phone
Around midnight I realised my phone was in the back of a taxi I had taken from Tulum Pueblo, and I did not know the driver's name. The next morning a man with the same car found me on the main road, rolled down the window and held it out. He had waited at the same corner for two hours. I tried to pay him. He refused an...
Thank youA woman stood in a parking space with her arms out until I pulled in
On a Tuesday afternoon I circled the Bishop Arts District for twenty five minutes looking for a place to park before an appointment. A woman pulling out of a spot saw me, waved me forward, and then stood in the space with her arms out until I had pulled in. She was laughing and so was I. She said, it is Dallas, we have...
Thank youThank you for finding my glasses on the sand at Playa de los Muertos
I lost my glasses somewhere on the sand at Playa de los Muertos on a Wednesday morning and could not see well enough to look for them. A woman picking up shells found them in about two minutes, wiped them on her shirt and put them in my hand. She asked if the world looked better now. I said yes, and it was the nicest q...
Thank you"You ate well, that is the payment," said the mango woman
I bought mangos at the Mercado Municipal Rio Cuale on Saturday, and when I got home I realised she had given me five and charged me for two. Next morning I went back with the extra money. She waved it away and said, you ate well, that is the payment. I bought a bag of limes anyway and she added two without asking. This...
