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.
A 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...
Thank youHe said buen provecho, though I had no food
I had far too many bags for the cobblestone hill up to Guadalupe on Thursday evening. A man coming down turned around, took two of them without asking, and climbed with me, breathing exactly as hard as I was. At the top he handed them back, said, buen provecho, and went down again. I do not know why he said buen provec...
Thank youI fell asleep in a colectivo and the driver turned around for me
I took a colectivo to Colosio late on a Friday, around 11.30pm. I fell asleep and woke at the last stop with no idea where I was. The driver had already driven past my street, then turned around, and he waited while I rubbed my eyes. He said, it is fine, I have to go back anyway. It was not fine. I am sure he lost mone...
Thank youCold drinks for the fisherman who pumped my tire near Ojo de Agua
My bicycle tire went flat near Ojo de Agua at midday and I walked it for a kilometer in the heat. A fisherman mending a net on the sand got up without being asked and brought a hand pump from his truck. He pumped the tire himself, checked it with his thumb and went back to the net. I thanked him four times. He nodded o...
Thank youSomebody shovelled my steps overnight and I left hot chocolate in return
It snowed forty centimeters overnight and I woke up late to a clear path from my door to the street. The steps and the sidewalk had been shovelled all the way to the corner. I looked up and down the street and nobody was around, only boot prints. I left a thermos of hot chocolate on the railing. It was gone by afternoo...
Thank youYou need a jump? Pay it forward, he said, and I did
My car would not start in The Heights on Sunday morning and I was standing there with the hood up like I knew what I was looking at. A man walking by asked, you need a jump? Four minutes later it was running. He refused money and just said, pay it forward. Two weeks later I did it for a woman outside a grocery store. S...
Thank youThe woman at the next stall whispered what a papaya really costs
On Saturday at Mercado 23 I asked the price of a papaya and the first answer was a tourist answer. The woman at the next stall leaned over, said the real number quietly, and winked. I paid it. She also told me which stall had the better limes. I now shop only on her side of the aisle and she waves when she sees me. Las...
Thank youThank you for backing the ferry up to the dock for me
The last ferry left the Isla Mujeres dock at 9.40pm and I was three minutes late, just standing there. The captain saw me from the deck, shouted something to the crew, backed the boat up to the dock and waved me on. Nobody on board minded. I was the last passenger on a dark sea and the whole boat clapped when I sat dow...
Thank youShe said pay me tomorrow at the taco cart, and I did
I was at a street cart in Echo Park on Tuesday night, short two dollars, counting coins out loud. The woman at the cart waved her hand and put a second taco on my plate anyway. She said, pay me tomorrow, I know you are good. I came back the next day with five dollars. She took two and gave me change with another taco....
Thank youThank you for turning the taxi around for my wallet
Past midnight in San Jose del Cabo, I realised I had left my wallet on a restaurant table when I was already on the other side of town. The taxi driver turned the car around without a word, drove back, waited with the engine on while I ran in, and the wallet was there. He charged me the original fare and nothing extra....
Thank youThank you for chasing me down Brickell with my laptop bag
I got off the Metromover in Brickell one Tuesday evening and left my laptop bag on the seat. A man who had been sitting across from me ran after me for two blocks in the heat with the bag held out in front of him like a trophy. He was out of breath and I was out of words. He said, I would want someone to do it for me....
Thank youThank you for the back road to Alto Boquete
It was 6.40pm on a Thursday after the rains, and a landslide had closed my usual road to Alto Boquete. I had no idea what to do. The taxi driver turned off onto a back road I did not know existed, past a coffee farm, and charged me the regular fare. On the way he pointed at a tree and said, quetzal, sometimes at six. W...
Thank youThank you for teaching me to eat a quenepa
I picked up a bag of small green round fruit at the Plaza del Mercado de Santurce one Saturday morning and had no idea what to do with it. The woman at the stall showed me how to crack the skin with my teeth and suck the pulp off the seed. She laughed at my first attempt and my second. I have eaten a kilo of quenepas s...
Thank youThank you surfer for telling me to stop fighting the current
A current pulled me out at Playa Langosta on a Tuesday afternoon and I was too tired to shout. A surfer paddled over, put me on his board and walked me back to the sand, ten minutes in total. He said it happens to everyone, you only have to stop fighting it. I came back in the morning with a coconut. He said, keep it,...
Question for localsWhen do locals go to Pacific Beach during June Gloom?
I have lived in San Diego for a short time and I keep hearing about May Gray and June Gloom. People say the weather is mild all year, but I arrived in summer and the mornings were cloudy in a way I did not expect. I want to plan beach days properly and not waste them. Is it normal to go to Pacific Beach in the afternoo...
Thank youThank you for fixing my bike chain with a stick
My bicycle chain jumped off on the BeltLine Eastside Trail in Old Fourth Ward one Sunday morning and my hands were black in seconds. A man jogging past stopped, flipped my bike upside down, put the chain back on with a stick, and wiped his hands on his own shirt. He said, no worries, I have done that fifty times. I rod...
Thank youDear tiny sewing kit, you saved my afternoon in Ybor City
My sandal strap snapped on a brick street in Ybor City on Saturday around 4pm and I was hopping on one foot looking for a bench. A woman sitting outside a shop pulled a tiny sewing kit from her bag, stitched it back in four minutes while I held her coffee, and gave me the shoe with a small bow. She did not take a dime....
