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 museum was so cold I wished I had brought a jacket in July
My first summer here I assumed the heat would be the story, and it was, right up until I walked into a museum in the Museum District and the air conditioning hit me like a shut door. Outside it was very hot and humid. Inside I was shivering in a short sleeve shirt next to a family in fleece. Air conditioning is set har...
Question for localsDo locals haggle at Mercado 23, or is the first price the price?
I moved here recently and I have been buying fruit and vegetables at Mercado 23, because someone said it is where people actually shop. It is busy and I like it, but I never know if I am paying the normal price or the new face price. A supermarket would be simpler, or I could ask a neighbour to come along once. Do loca...
OverheardI have been looking for parking so long I could have walked
On Calle Loiza a man leaned out of his car window and called to a friend on the pavement, "I have been looking for parking so long I could have walked from home." The friend said, "Then park on the next block, you are already here." "That is the next block's problem," he said, and drove on. I laughed. I do not yet unde...
A small kindnessHe went home for booster cables and would not tell me his name
It was minus twenty in Inglewood and my car would not start, and I was already late for work. A man walking his dog went home, came back with a set of booster cables and his truck, and had me running in about four minutes. He would not say his name. He said somebody did the same for him once. I think we are all in a ch...
Local tipCarry small pesos for the plaza, especially in the quiet months
My first low season here I learned to keep small pesos in my pocket. Everyday purchases are in pesos, and around the town plaza in September, when it is quiet and the heat is heavy, the small stalls seem to like exact money more than they would in February. Break your larger notes at a shop with a full till, then spend...
Lost touchRoom in the back of a pickup full of fishermen near El Sunzal
A pickup truck full of fishermen stopped for me on the coastal highway near El Sunzal one hot afternoon and made room in the back. They did not ask where I was going. They drove me to El Zonte and waved when they dropped me at the village. I was in a hurry and could only say thanks. Next time I will bring them somethin...
A small kindnessThank you for the red torch and for not telling me off, Playa Grande
It was turtle nesting season at Playa Grande, around 10pm, and I forgot the red light rule and walked in with my phone lit. A volunteer quietly handed me a red torch and said, this one is better. She did not tell me off. We walked in the dark and she explained everything in a low voice, and then she held her arm out an...
A small kindnessNobody argued about who would change my flat tire in Oak Cliff
It was forty one degrees in Oak Cliff one July afternoon when I got a flat tire, and four men stopped within five minutes. They did not argue about who would change it. One lifted the car, another loosened the nuts, a third held the spare. It took about nine minutes. I offered to pay and they looked at me like I had sa...
A small kindnessThank you for waiting with me on the bayou path
I twisted my ankle on the path in Buffalo Bayou Park on a Saturday morning and sat down in the heat looking miserable. A runner stopped, gave me half her water, and called a friend who lived nearby with a car. She waited with me for fifteen minutes until it arrived. She did not leave her number. I limped for two weeks...
A small kindnessI was too nervous to point at anything, so a stranger ordered for me
It was my first night in Bangkok, around 9pm, and I stood at a street stall on Yaowarat Road for ten minutes, too nervous to point at anything. A man in a work shirt next to me ordered for both of us, paid for mine before I could stop him, and waved away the baht I held out. He said, first night, not hungry. It was the...
A small kindnessIt was Orlando's idea of winter, and a stranger bought me soup
It was 52 degrees, which in Orlando is January, and I was shivering at a table alone in the Mills 50 district. The woman at the next table asked the kitchen for a second bowl of soup and slid it over without a word. She said, it is on me, it is what I would want. We talked for an hour about the places in Vietnam we bot...
A small kindnessPeaches on a porch in Inman Park while the thunderstorm passed
A summer thunderstorm caught me in Inman Park on a Thursday evening while I was walking home with groceries. A woman on a porch waved me up and held the door. We sat on her steps for twenty minutes eating her peaches and watching the water run down the street. I never learned her name. I know her porch very well. I wal...
A small kindnessDear man in the white shirt, you paid my fare across the Creek
I tried to board the abra on Dubai Creek one morning and my coins were the wrong ones. The man next to me, in a white shirt, dropped his coins into the boatman's hand for both of us and said nothing. We sat on opposite benches and did not look at each other, but I saw him smile at the water. The Creek is very short, th...
A small kindnessThank you for the sarong at the Uluwatu gate
I climbed up to the gate at the Uluwatu cliffs on a Saturday at 3pm in shorts, and the guard shook his head. A woman behind me unwrapped her own sarong, handed it over and said she had another in her bag. I tied it on. We walked the cliff path together without speaking. At the exit she took it back and tied it on herse...
A small kindnessShe cleaned a pigeon off my white shirt before my interview
I was in the plaza in Coyoacan at 9.40am, twenty minutes before a job interview, when a pigeon took aim at me and I was wearing a white shirt. A woman on a nearby bench took a pack of tissues and a small bottle of water out of her bag and cleaned me up in ninety seconds without a single comment. I arrived five minutes...
A small kindness"Pay me tomorrow," she said and put a straw hat on my head
I was standing in the sun at Parque Fundadores on a Saturday with no hat and a headache that kept getting worse. A woman selling hats from a cart looked at me, took a straw one down, put it on my head and said, pay me tomorrow. I came back the next day with the money and a bottle of water for her. She said, keep the wa...
A small kindnessA stranger paid for my first cafecito on Calle Ocho
The line at a walk up coffee window on Calle Ocho in Little Havana was moving and I was not ready. The man in front of me noticed I was struggling to order. He turned and said, cafecito, little cup, strong, five minutes of your life back. He paid. I took the tiny cup, and I stood there for ten minutes while everything...
A small kindnessWhat I learned from a stranger at the Metro gate in Panama City
I had an empty card and a line behind me at the Metro gate in Panama City, and I was trying to remember my pin for the top up machine. A woman in front of me turned around, tapped her own card on the reader for me, and walked on without a word. It was the quickest kindness I have had in this city. I have repeated it tw...
A small kindnessThe Roncesvalles streetcar driver told me to take my time
A freezing wind was blowing on Roncesvalles at 11pm when I came running down the street just as the streetcar was closing its doors. The driver saw me, opened them again and said, take your time, I am not going anywhere. I got on, panting, and he was already smiling. It was probably only fifteen seconds. I felt like so...
Question for localsIs Galveston beach worth the drive if you miss clear water?
I used to teach diving, and the thing I miss most here is water you can see through. Galveston beach is about an hour away, and people tell me it is a good day out, but nobody has said anything about the colour of the water. I am not expecting a reef. I just want to know what kind of day it is, and whether the trip mak...
A small kindnessNow I keep a bike pump in my trunk for strangers
My bicycle tire went flat at Mueller Lake Park at 7am and I was standing there looking sorry for myself. A woman running laps stopped, went to her car, came back with a floor pump and had me inflated in a minute. She said she kept it in the trunk for exactly this. I do not know anyone else who keeps a bike pump for str...
First time hereThe rain on the Cinta Costera arrived on time
In my first week I walked the Cinta Costera in the late afternoon, because Panama City is hot and humid all year and I assumed that evening was the cool part. The sky went dark in minutes. The rain came down like someone had tipped a bath over the city. Every local I could see was already under a shelter, as if they ha...
A small kindnessThank you for the salt and yes, I brought bagels
I woke up to ice on my steps in Logan Square and a small pile of salt beside the door, with the shovel leaning on the railing. I looked up and down the block but the street was empty. The steps were dry in ten minutes. I left a note on the shovel that said, thank you, whoever you are. The next morning there was a note...
OverheardIt's over a hundred, why are we running?
On the Lady Bird Lake hike and bike trail in the late afternoon, a runner stopped beside his friend and said, "It's over a hundred, why are we running?" His friend, not stopping, said, "Because in an hour it will be worse." I would like to give you a trend, but I only have this small sample. I walked on at my own speed...
