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.
Would you let me buy you that coffee now?
My bicycle chain came off outside Wat Xieng Thong on a Thursday afternoon and my hands went black in two seconds. A man in a football shirt crouched next to me, put the chain back in under a minute and wiped his hands on his own shorts. He pointed at my hands and laughed, and then at his shorts, and laughed harder. I t...
Lost and foundDid anyone find a black mesh bag with a dive mask near Thong Sala pier?
Did anyone find a black mesh bag with a dive mask inside, near Thong Sala pier? The strap is pale blue and there is a small turtle sticker on the case. I think I left it on a songthaew bench on Wednesday afternoon, ferry day. If it was picked up, it may be on the pier bench, or the songthaew driver may have set it asid...
Found a friendWe have lunch every Wednesday and never take the lift together
A lift in Business Bay stopped between the 23rd and 24th floors on a Thursday evening with only two of us inside. We pressed every button, laughed nervously, then sat down on the floor and talked until it moved again forty minutes later. I learned he is a chef and he learned I am very bad at waiting. We have lunch in t...
A chance meetingTea from a thermos and a cricket match on a radio at Saadiyat
I stayed late at Saadiyat Public Beach one February evening and ended up sitting near a few older men with a thermos and a transistor radio. They offered tea and I accepted. We listened to an old cricket match crackle through the speaker. Nobody said much. One of them groaned at a wicket. When the sun went down they st...
Found a friendA man on my bench poured me tea into his thermos cap without a word
I was freezing on a bench by the Vistula boulevards at Powiśle one December evening around 5pm when a man on the same bench poured tea from his thermos into the cap and handed it to me without a word. We talked about the river for an hour. He told me where to find the best views in the city, all of them within a kilome...
Found a friendWe shared one motorbike taxi and now we have dinner every Sunday
The motorbike taxi driver in Phra Khanong would not leave until he had two passengers, so one Sunday evening a stranger and I were put on the same bike. We held on to each other through twenty minutes of traffic, and by the second red light we were laughing about how little we trusted the helmet straps. We had dinner a...
Lost and foundLost: small black card holder with a metro card near Lumphini Park
Did anyone find a small black card holder near the gate of Lumphini Park on Thursday morning? Inside is a stored value card for the MRT, which means Mass Rapid Transit, the metro, and a library card with a bent corner. The money on the metro card is small, but the card is what lets me cross the city without queueing fo...
Found a friendI sat next to a stranger on the bus to Santa Cruz and now I eat at his mother's
On a Sunday at 11am I took the local bus from Tamarindo to Santa Cruz, and the only free seat was next to a man. He started a conversation about the price of fish and I agreed with everything. By the end of the ride he had invited me to lunch at his mother's house. I have been going on Sundays for five months. She feed...
Lost touchSorry I never got your numbers, from the slow bicycle on the ring road
I was riding the ring road from Chaweng to Lamai one October on a rented bicycle that was too small, and the three of you passed me on one tiny motorbike and then stopped at every viewpoint to wait. At the fourth one, one of you said, take your time, we are not going anywhere. The ride took four hours instead of one. I...
A chance meetingHe explained every turtle in a whisper and went silent for one
Someone said the turtles were coming to Ostional beach, so I walked down in the middle of the night. A man beside me on the sand spoke in a very low voice the whole time, explaining what each turtle was doing, and when one reached the dry sand he went completely quiet. Forty of us watched in the dark with no lights. I...
Found a friendMy fan died and the man next door brought his own and stayed
My fan died during a power cut in Pererenan on Friday night, so I knocked on the guesthouse next door to ask for a spare. The man there did not have one, so he carried his own across and sat on my balcony until the lights came back, which was two hours. We talked about surf, the price of rice and his sister in Java. Th...
Found a friendYou lent me your spare snorkel and we followed a turtle
My snorkel strap broke at the reef off Puerto Morelos and a man floating nearby handed me his spare without a word. We ended up following the same turtle for twenty minutes. On the beach we compared how many fish we had counted. His number was eighty. Mine was thirty. We have a standing swim every Saturday and the coun...
A chance meetingThe power went out and the whole street sat on its front steps
The power went out at dusk in La Libertad. The whole street ended up on their front steps with candles, radios and plastic chairs. A neighbour I did not know passed me a cup of coffee. Someone started a story about a storm from years ago and it went on for three hours. When the lights came back, nobody went in right aw...
A chance meetingSorry about your banana, from the bench in the Sacred Monkey Forest
On a bench in the Sacred Monkey Forest on Sunday morning a macaque took the banana out of my bag before I had unpacked it. A man on the next bench laughed so hard that he had to take off his glasses. He offered me half of his own banana, which the macaque also took. We ended up with an empty bag between us and a long t...
Lost touchI left the Wednesday sailing group without saying goodbye
We went out on Wednesday evenings from Marina Vallarta in a boat that leaked in one corner, with a skipper who sang the same two songs. I stopped going when my work changed and never said goodbye. I walked past the dock this week. The boat was still there, the corner still leaking, a new person bailing it. Tell the ski...
A chance meetingWhose song was it? The mariachi band in Plaza Mijares
Three musicians were warming up in Plaza Mijares on a Thursday evening when a man on my bench began to cry quietly during the second song. His wife used to sing it, he told the bench. Nobody said anything, including me. Someone passed him a napkin. When they finished he stood up, thanked the trio in a low voice, put a...
Found a friendThank you for lending me a full gas bottle until Monday
My gas ran out around noon on a Sunday in Supermanzana 22. I did not know who delivers it. The neighbour across the street saw me carrying the empty bottle and handed me his own full one, said, we will fix it later, and shook my hand. We swapped them back on Monday and we have been sitting on his step ever since. He sa...
Lost touchDo the dog walkers at the bridge notice that one dog is missing?
For two years I walked the Don Valley trails at seven every morning and always met the same four dog walkers at the same bridge. We never exchanged names, only dog names. I moved across the city last month and now I walk in the evening. I wonder if anyone at the bridge has noticed that one dog is missing. I wonder if t...
Found a friendTake them off, we all do, she called across the flooded street
After a storm on Thursday the street flooded at a corner in Region 15 and I was stuck there, looking at my shoes. A woman on the other side said, take them off, we all do. We waded across holding our sandals and by the end we were laughing at how we looked. She is now the first person I call when it rains. We keep a sp...
Found a friendA stranger tuned my ukulele and now we play every Friday
On a Friday at 4pm I was on a bench in San Pancho practising the same four chords when a man sat down and politely told me I was one note off. He took the ukulele, fixed it in three seconds, and gave it back. We have played together every Friday since. I am still bad, but now I am bad in tune, and I have a friend who s...
A chance meetingDear fog, thanks for hiding the harmonica player on the Waterfront Boardwalk
On Wednesday evening the fog came in so thick on the Waterfront Boardwalk that I could not see the boats. Somewhere in the white a man began to play a harmonica, slow and slightly flat, a song I half knew. I stood there for ten minutes. When the fog lifted he was gone, but I could still hear it. I took the long way hom...
A chance meetingThe monsoon hit Papago Park and we all crowded into the same rock opening
The monsoon hit Papago Park in about ninety seconds, black sky, then wind, then hail. About thirty of us ducked into the same rock opening and stood shoulder to shoulder watching the red desert turn dark. Someone passed round a bag of pretzels. When it ended there was a smell I cannot describe, creosote and wet dust. E...
Found a friendEvery Sunday I bring lemonade to a stranger's banjo porch
On a Sunday afternoon in Seminole Heights a man was playing a banjo on his porch and I stopped on the sidewalk for one song and stayed for five. He gestured at an empty chair on his porch without breaking the tune. I sat. That was last spring. I go every Sunday now and bring lemonade. I still do not know what the tune...
Found a friendI borrowed a spare jacket on Volcan Baru and now we swap books
I was halfway up Volcan Baru on a Saturday afternoon when I got cold and turned around, and a woman coming down said, wait, I have a second jacket. She lent me a wool one and we walked down together comparing blisters, her three to my five. She lives in Palmira, two streets from me. We swap books on the first Sunday of...
