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.
The best sandwich in Dubai was full of sand
The sand came up at Kite Beach around 4pm with only a few minutes of warning. A handful of us who had been lying in different spots ended up under one large blanket that a man had brought for his picnic. We sat pressed together, laughing and spitting sand, for half an hour. When it passed everyone brushed off and left,...
Lost and foundDid anyone find a paperback with a green cloth bookmark?
What would you want to know first? It is a thin paperback with a cracked spine, a green cloth bookmark about halfway through, and pencil notes in the margins in small slanted writing. I lost it last Friday afternoon somewhere near Saraswati Temple, probably on a bench or a low wall. It matters because the notes are the...
Local tipWalk the Corniche after dark in summer
Summer in Abu Dhabi is above 45 degrees, and the heat does not care about your plans. I walk the Corniche after sunset, when it is still warm but pleasant, and I take water. Everything indoors is air conditioned, so I put the outdoor part of the day at the end and leave the morning for errands. In winter, from November...
A chance meetingWe all stood in a shop doorway at Tanah Lot and nobody took a photograph
A storm came over Tanah Lot with no warning on a Wednesday afternoon and a crowd of strangers ended up in the same shop doorway. Someone shared a plastic poncho. An older couple argued gently about the way back. A student read the forecast out loud in two languages and was wrong in both. We stood there for forty minute...
Lost touchDear iced tea man, the elephant is still on my fridge
For six months I bought iced tea every morning on the corner in Thonglor from a young man who drew a tiny picture on each cup, a cat, a boat, once a very serious potato. One Monday he was gone and the woman who replaced him said he had moved to Chiang Mai. I kept a stack of the cups. If you are reading, the elephant is...
Overheard'How is the river still running when it is this cold?'
'How is the river still running when it is this cold?' a woman asked the man beside her on the Bow River pathway. Both were in long coats, both staring at the water. He said, 'Chinook,' the way you would name a relative. She nodded as if that settled it. I looked at the river too, still moving and a little brown, and t...
A chance meetingThe sunset at Playa Paraiso, and the man with the little flute
The beach at Playa Paraiso was almost empty at sunset on Tuesday and the handful of us who were there ended up standing in the water without planning to. Nobody spoke. A man took out a small flute, played three notes and put it away again. The sky turned the colour of a peach. Everyone left separately, in different dir...
A chance meetingI ate a roll for a bride I will never meet
A wedding came out of the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Saturday afternoon and the whole street stopped. A band started up and a man handed me a paper cup of something sweet and said, welcome, family. I stood with strangers in the sun for twenty minutes clapping for a couple I will never meet. Then I went to buy b...
OverheardIt is not plastic, it is coconut shell, that is why it costs that much
Near the Playa Guiones entrance a woman at a craft table told her friend, "It is not plastic, it is coconut shell, that is why it costs that much." The friend turned the bowl over, ran a thumb along the rim, and set it down very gently, as if it had just been introduced to her. I was pretending to read the notice board...
Lost and foundLost: a dented steel water bottle with a sailboat sticker
Reported lost on Saturday afternoon along the path at Echo Park Lake: a dark blue steel water bottle, dented near the base, with a faded sticker of a sailboat on the side and a strip of tape across the lid. It was left beside a bench, or possibly carried off by someone who took it for rubbish. It has been with me for y...
A chance meetingDo you mind if I take this with you in it?
I was watching the sun go down behind New Jersey from Hudson River Park when a man next to me lifted an old film camera and asked, do you mind if I take this with you in it? I said, fine. He took one frame and said, thanks. I never saw the picture. I like to think there is a print somewhere of me on a bench in good lig...
Lost and foundLost: dark green wool mitten, right hand, Lachine Canal path
Did anyone find a dark green wool mitten, right hand, with a small hole at the thumb, somewhere along the Lachine Canal path on Saturday afternoon? I took it off to check my phone and by the time I looked again it was gone from the bench. It was warm last week, but the nights are already cold and winter here is long, a...
A chance meetingA line of strangers watched a seal do nothing at La Jolla Cove
About twenty people were standing in a quiet line along the rail at La Jolla Cove at 7am, all watching a seal on a rock do absolutely nothing. Nobody spoke. A woman near me whispered, he is thinking. After fifteen minutes the seal rolled over and everybody exhaled. It was the most satisfying nothing I have seen. I went...
A chance meetingShe named every bird on the roof of the ferry pier
I was an hour early for the Cozumel ferry when the woman next to me started naming every bird that landed on the pier roof, in a low voice, like a quiet commentator. Pelican. Frigate. Cormorant. She was not a guide, just a retired teacher. When my boat came I realised I had stopped checking my phone. I still look up at...
A chance meetingEveryone on the Congress Avenue Bridge went quiet when the bats came out
At dusk in August about two hundred of us stood along the rail of the Congress Avenue Bridge, all looking at the same dark arch. When the bats began to pour out, the whole bridge went silent for about three minutes. Then somebody said, wow, and everyone laughed. A man next to me murmured, never gets old. I did not ask...
Question for localsWhat do newcomers use to get to David, bus, colectivo or taxi?
I have lived here all my life, so I stopped thinking about how to get around years ago. Lately a few people new to Bajo Boquete have asked me, and I realised my answer is just my habit, not a comparison. I know the local buses, the colectivos and the taxis, and roughly who runs each one. What I do not know is what a ne...
A chance meetingNobody speaks at sunrise on Playa Delfines
I could not sleep at 5.15am, so I walked down to the water at Playa Delfines. A handful of other people were already there, all alone, all holding coffee, all facing the same direction. Nobody spoke for an hour. When the sun came up over the water we all looked at each other like people who had passed an exam together....
A chance meetingWe waited out sideways rain on the Cinta Costera and talked only about ships
The sky went black in two minutes on the Cinta Costera on Thursday around 5pm and the rain started sideways. A man jogging past stopped, held his rain jacket open like a roof, and said, come. We ran to the nearest bench roof and stood there dripping, watching the container ships. We talked about nothing, mostly about s...
A small kindnessThank you to the family who gave me petrol on the Son Tra road
At sunset my motorbike ran out of fuel at the top of a hill on the Son Tra Peninsula road. A family on a scooter, a plastic bottle of petrol tied to the back, stopped, filled my tank halfway and would not take money. They told me where the next station was and rode off with the empty bottle bumping against the frame. I...
Missed connectionYour phone rang during the breathing part, and I laughed into my towel
You laid your mat two spaces from mine at sunrise yoga in Srithanu, and halfway through the breathing part your phone rang. You turned it off so fast and apologised to the whole room with both hands. Everyone smiled. I was trying not to laugh into my towel, and failing, quietly, which sounds worse than it was. I have n...
A small kindnessI bargained too hard and went home with a carved frog
I was bargaining for a wooden bowl at the Ubud Traditional Art Market one Saturday morning, and getting very good at it, I thought. The seller looked at me, laughed, and said, take it, you are trying too hard, then gave me the price I had asked for, plus a small carved frog. I paid the full price anyway, which made her...
Lost touchDear accordion player, I miss the note you got wrong
For three months I crossed the Zocalo at 8.30 every morning and heard the same accordion tune from the same man, always slightly wrong in the same place. I started to time my walk to it. By the end I was humming the wrong note on purpose. Last week I came by and there was only an empty corner. If you moved or found a b...
A chance meetingThank you for the lime and for pulling me out of the rain
The roof of the market at Psar Leu leaks in exactly one place, and on a very wet Tuesday afternoon in rainy season I was standing under it. A woman with a basket of limes pulled me two steps to the left by my sleeve, laughing, then handed me one lime for no reason. I held it all the way home on the motorbike, in one ha...
A small kindnessHalf a sandwich and a lizard on a bench in Puerto Morelos
At noon on a bench in the plaza in Puerto Morelos I had no lunch and about forty pesos. A woman on the next bench unwrapped a sandwich without asking, split it in half, and put one half on the bench between us. We watched a lizard cross the paving stones. She left before I thought to ask her name. It was ham and avocad...
