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.
Everyone clapped at nothing when the sun came back
The thunderstorm in Trinity Bellwoods Park started with no warning on a Sunday afternoon, and a crowd of us packed under the same huge tree. A man began handing out the snacks from his picnic. A student shared a tarp. We stood there for half an hour, shoulder to shoulder, soaked at the edges, while the lightning moved...
A small kindnessI borrowed a stranger's spare scarf in the Halifax Public Gardens
A strong wind came through the Halifax Public Gardens one afternoon and took my scarf over the hedge and into the pond. A man on a bench handed me his own spare and said, I always carry two, I am from here. I walked home in a warm scarf that was not mine. I am keeping it until I see him again, and then I am buying him...
A small kindnessThank you for covering my windows before the storm
A storm warning arrived at 2pm and I was standing in front of my windows on Davis Islands with a drill and no idea where to start. The man next door came over with his own drill and a stepladder and had four windows covered before sunset. He said, I did mine already, I had time. I do not think he had time. The storm tu...
A chance meetingI heard four slow bars on a trumpet in the snow and never found the song
It was snowing sideways in Millennium Park at 9pm, and nobody was around except me, a man with a trumpet case, and a very large silver bean. He opened the case, tapped the valve twice, and played four slow bars that made the snow look like it was following the tune. Then he packed up and walked toward the L. I stood an...
A chance meetingI do not know the song, but I kept the beat
The afternoon storm hit Peacock Park in Coconut Grove at 4pm and I ran for the nearest pavilion. An old woman was already there with a small radio playing salsa at low volume. She started tapping her foot. I started too. The rain turned into a downpour and the two of us stood there tapping for twenty minutes like it wa...
A small kindnessThe best water of my life came out of a stranger's bike bag
At 4pm in August on Roosevelt Row my car air conditioning broke, and I was standing next to it with the hood up and sweat running into my eyes. A woman on a bike stopped, handed me a bottle of ice cold water from her bag, said, keep it, and rode off. It was the best water of my life. It was also the only thing keeping...
A small kindnessThe golf cart that drove me to Carricitos at walking speed
The sun was heavy on the path to Carricitos that afternoon. A man in a golf cart stopped, said, get in, and drove me the last kilometer at a walking pace so I could look at the water. He dropped me at the sand, refused money, and told me there was a spot behind the rocks with less wind. There was. I sat there for two h...
A small kindness"Pay me when you can," she said, and handed me the bagged groceries
I forgot my wallet at a small shop near Playa Pelada on Saturday at noon, and my groceries were already bagged. The woman said, take them, pay me when you can. I came back the next morning with the money and she was surprised I had remembered. She gave me a mango and a small hug. That is how it works here. I have been...
A small kindnessThank you for the cold water and the shade, Khalidiyah bus stop
It was forty six degrees at a bus stop in Khalidiyah at 3pm when a security guard walked across the street with a cold bottle of water and put it in my hand. He said, sit in the shade of the building, the bus is late. He went back to his chair. The bottle was still cold when I got home forty minutes later. I think abou...
A small kindnessThe plum seller at Jean-Talon who corrects one word every August
My French fell apart at the plum stall in Jean-Talon Market one August and I ended up pointing and saying the wrong words. The vendor corrected me kindly, three times, then pushed the bag of plums across and said, this one is on me, for trying. I walked home with a good lesson and a sticky bag. I buy plums from her eve...
A chance meetingEveryone on the lawn clapped when the sun went down
On Wednesday at sunset I sat on the lawn at the Griffith Park Observatory, where a crowd was already sitting on the grass. When the sun touched the horizon they all stopped talking, and when it was gone somebody clapped. Everyone joined in, gently, for about ten seconds. I think we were thanking the sun. I went back ev...
A small kindnessMy motorbike taxi driver waited through my last swim and gave me his poncho
A storm was coming in at An Bang Beach. The motorbike taxi driver who brought me waited forty minutes while I finished my last swim. He did not ask for more. He just held a poncho over the seat. When I finally came out he gave me the poncho, took the normal fare, and told me to go slowly because the road was wet. I did...
A small kindness"Coffee," he said, when I asked what it was
It was harvest season near Jaramillo, and a coffee picker taking a break on the path waved me over, divided his rice and beans in half, and poured me a cup of coffee from a thermos. We talked about rain and prices. He had been picking since six and I had been out for an hour. He had a full sack and I had a camera. It w...
A small kindnessDear second floor, the coat is washed and hanging back on your door
It was minus eight in Praga and I had arrived from a warm country with one thin jacket. On the third morning there was a thick wool coat hanging on my door handle with a small note that said, from the second floor. I still do not know who it was. I wore it all winter. On the first warm day I washed it and hung it back...
Overheard"The fish can wait and my lunch cannot"
Overheard at the mercado, just before the midday break. A customer at the fish counter asked, "Can you do one more, please?" The man behind it said, "I can, but the fish can wait and my lunch cannot." She laughed, put her bag down, and said she would be back later. What happened: nothing, and nobody was upset. What I n...
Lost touchMy ankle is fine now, thank you for holding my crutches
I had a broken ankle and a pair of crutches on the guagua in Ofra one Tuesday morning and nobody moved. A woman in the third row stood up, gave me her seat, and held my crutches the whole way. She got off two stops past her own to make sure I reached the street. She waved from the window and I waved back. I never knew...
A small kindnessThe woman at the fish market wrote the prices on my hand with a pen
I stood completely lost in the fish market in La Libertad at nine in the morning and a woman behind a counter looked at me and started pointing. This one for ceviche, this one for the grill, this one tomorrow. She wrote the prices on my hand with a pen so I would remember. I walked out with enough fish for two days and...
A small kindnessThe man with the striped tarp at Lamai Beach, and my dry book
The rain came in at Lamai Beach just as I was setting up to read. A man with a big striped tarp walked over, propped it up on two sticks in the sand above my towel, and went back to his own table without a word. When the rain stopped he came back for it, nodded, and left. The whole thing took six minutes. I think about...
Thank youA woman at the Morning Market fixed my wallet with a safety pin
The zip on my wallet broke at the Morning Market around 6.50 one morning and all my kip fell onto the wet floor, bills and coins, in front of a lot of people. A woman selling dried fish crouched, picked up the coins without being asked, and put a safety pin through the zip. She would not take anything. She said, small....
A small kindness"Sit, sit, the boats are better from here"
The bench by the Cabo San Lucas marina was full on Friday evening and my feet were done after a long day. An old man in a faded cap slid over, patted the wood and said, sit, sit, the boats are better from here. He told me which one was the fastest, and which belonged to a cousin, and which one had never left the dock....
A small kindnessDear bicycle bell, thank you for leading me home from Punta Sur
The brakes on my rented scooter went soft on the road down from Punta Sur. A man on a bicycle stopped, looked at my wheels, and led me slowly back to town, riding in front, ringing his bell so cars would give way. It took forty minutes. He said it was nothing, he lived that way anyway. I looked later. There were no hou...
First time hereGoing to the fish market at noon was my first mistake
In my first week in La Libertad I went to the fish market at noon, like a man who eats lunch at noon. There was one tray of fish left and a man hosing the floor. The morning is when it happens, I was told, politely. I came back the next day early and the place was loud and busy, with fish that looked like it had been i...
A small kindnessThank you to the couple with the wool blanket at El Charco del Ingenio
I had come out to El Charco del Ingenio in a thin jacket, and the bench was cold at that hour. An older couple on the next bench opened a thick wool blanket, spread it over the three of us without a word, and we watched the sun come over the canyon in silence. It took about forty minutes. The couple had a thermos. They...
A small kindnessThe neighbour I never spoke to had a generator
The power went out in Miramar for two days after the storm and my food was starting to go. A neighbour I had never spoken to knocked on my door and said, we have a generator, put your things in our fridge. I did. When the power came back he said we should have dinner. We did. We had lived two doors apart for a year and...
