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.
We met in a lift in Edgewater and now we trade mangoes for recipes
I stepped into the lift in Edgewater on Thursday evening with two big bags of groceries and a man offered to hold the door. We rode up nineteen floors and he asked if I liked mangoes. I did. He had a tree in his parents' yard and had been looking for someone to take them. We have been trading mangoes for recipes ever s...
Found a friendApparently the dog from the Prospect Park bench talks about me at home
A large and very confident dog walked up to me on a bench in Prospect Park one Sunday morning and put his chin on my knee like we had agreed on it. The owner apologised four times. We sat there for an hour. The dog never moved. Now the three of us walk the same loop every Sunday and the owner says the dog talks about m...
Found a friendWe started a cedar season support group on a park bench
On a bench in Hyde Park in the thick of cedar season, I sneezed fourteen times in a row and a woman walking by handed me a full pack of tissues without a word. We talked about allergies, then about everything else. She said, we should start a support group. We did. It is two people and a thermos. Every January we meet...
Found a friend"You are going to need a bigger bag," said the peach man
Every Saturday I bought the same peaches from the same stall in Grant Park, and one morning the man behind it said, you are going to need a bigger bag. That was the beginning. Now he saves me the odd shaped ones, I bring him coffee, and we talk about the weather in two accents. He says I am his favourite regular. I sus...
Found a friendReturn it Sunday, he said, and now we surf together
My surfboard fin broke at El Tunco on a Saturday and the nearest shop was closed. A stranger on the beach pulled a spare out of his bag, helped me screw it in, and said, return it Sunday. On Sunday we surfed together and the fin ended up staying with me. He says he is still waiting for it. I am still waiting for him to...
Found a friendI filled in as goalkeeper and now I lose every Sunday with new friends
The goalkeeper was missing from a pickup game in Gonzalo Guerrero on Sunday afternoon and I was the only person standing around. I let in seven goals and sprained my ankle on the last one. The other team carried me to a bench and one of them ran off to find ice. We are now a team of eleven that loses every Sunday and e...
Lost touchAre the riders from the bend on the Amador Causeway still out there?
For a whole dry season I cycled the Amador Causeway on Saturdays at 7am and passed the same three riders at the same bend, first with a nod, then a wave, then a shout. One Saturday they were gone. I have been back a dozen times and seen only tourists on rented bicycles. If you rode in the rain, I owe you the first coff...
Found a friendMy Spanish is barely better but I know all about his grandmother's mole
A language exchange near Parque Juarez gave me a Spanish partner who corrected my verbs for two hours, then took me for tacos around the corner. We have met every Thursday for ten months. My Spanish is barely better. I know all about his grandmother's recipe for mole. It has twenty three ingredients and one of them is...
A chance meetingSomebody sang an old Canarian song on Playa de Las Teresitas and I hummed along
I was lying on the black sand at Playa de Las Teresitas in the afternoon when a man two towels away started singing under his breath, an old Canarian song, slightly flat. Without realising it I was humming along. He looked over and grinned. We did not speak. At the end of the song we both applauded softly, once. I look...
Found a friendHe is nobody's but he eats at my place
On my first morning in Colonia Electricistas a skinny dog followed me home, and the man next door said, he is nobody's but he eats at my place. For a month I fed the dog on his step. Now I help the man mend nets on Sundays and the dog sleeps between us. I came for a week and booked another month. It was supposed to be...
Found a friendSame time tomorrow? A walking friend at Lake Baldwin Park
Every evening for a month I walked around Lake Baldwin Park alone, and a woman walking the other direction started to say hello. By the second week she said, same time tomorrow? We do two loops now, one for exercise and one for conversation. I know about her garden and her two sons. She knows about my terrible commute....
Found a friendMy shovel snapped in a Rosemont snowbank and a neighbour brought his spare
My shovel broke in a snowbank in Rosemont at eight in the morning. The man from the third floor came out with two, handed me one, and we dug until the street was clear without exchanging more than ten words. He asked if I wanted a coffee. We drank it standing in the snow. It has been three winters. We still share the s...
Found a friendMy tuk tuk driver says my Khmer accent is terrible
On my second day in Siem Reap a tuk tuk driver took me from Kandal Village to the airport road and would not take more than we had agreed. I asked if he knew a place for noodles. He said, wait, and took me to his cousin's stall. That was eight months ago. I book him every Friday after work now. We eat noodles. He corre...
A chance meetingThe jackfruit seller at Han Market who fed me off her knife
At Han Market on Tuesday morning I was staring at a jackfruit like it was a maths problem. The seller, in a conical hat, took it from me, rubbed her knife with a little cooking oil, and opened it in four quick moves. She fed me the first piece off the tip of the knife. It was warm, sticky and tasted like candy. I bough...
Found a friendA chinook morning and a neighbour who brings the chairs
The chinook came in during the night in Marda Loop and I woke up to a plus fifteen morning and a street full of people in shorts, blinking. A man next door and I stood on our steps and laughed. He brought out two chairs. We watched the snow melt for three hours. We have repeated this every chinook since, four so far. H...
First time hereThe golf carts are the traffic here and nobody warned me
I arrived in June, so the first thing I learned was mosquitoes, and the second was that golf carts are the traffic. Not a few of them. All of it. On the cobblestones near the main plaza I stood on a corner for a full minute waiting for a gap, and a cart went by with a family, a cooler and three surfboards on the back....
OverheardIt's only a hundred out, that's basically fall
Late afternoon in August, on the Katy Trail. A man in running shorts said to his friend, who was holding a water bottle like a rescue, "It's only a hundred out, that's basically fall." They ran. I was walking the other way, in the shade of a tree, and I will say plainly that running then was a mistake, and he probably...
Found a friendMy salsa partner kept stepping on my foot and apologising more each time
At a beginners salsa class in Machuchal on a Wednesday night my dance partner stepped on my foot four times in the first ten minutes and apologised each time more sincerely. By the end of the night we were both laughing so hard that we could not count the beat. We meet every Wednesday now. We have improved slightly. Th...
OverheardWhy is my car yellow? It's pollen, honey, it's April.
Outside a coffee window in Inman Park, a man stared at his dusty car and said, "Why is my car yellow?" The woman behind him in line answered without looking up from her phone, "It's pollen, honey. It's April." Pollen is the yellow dust the trees release every spring, and it covers everything here for weeks. I had stopp...
A chance meetingAll the words to a song I could not name
The doors of a small venue in Deep Ellum opened at closing time, around 2am, and the band played the last song out on the street. Everyone on the sidewalk knew the words. I did not, but I hummed. A woman beside me gave me the lyrics in my ear. We finished together. Nobody clapped, but a man in a hat took his hat off. I...
OverheardWhy is your car always on empty in hurricane season?
Overheard on Bayshore Boulevard, a pair of neighbours beside a parked car. Hurricane season runs from June to November here, and that is the rule most people live by, so the talk is never about if, only about when to fill up. The taller looked at the gauge and said, "It's hurricane season, why is your car always on emp...
Local tipClose the windows before the dust arrives, not after
When calima dust is blowing in from the Sahara, close your windows before you leave the flat, not when you get back. It sounds trivial. It is not, because the dust is fine and gets on everything, the laptop keyboard and the balcony chairs included. I learned this on a day that looked perfectly normal, which is how cali...
Found a friendChess in Hermann Park: I lose and he nods
I was sitting at a chess table in Hermann Park on a Saturday morning, waiting for nobody, when a man sat across from me and started setting up the pieces. We played four games and I lost three. He gave me a nod after each one, including the one I won. I come back every Saturday. We have been playing for a year. I now l...
First time hereThe coffee came in a cup the size of a thimble
First week in town, I walked up to a little window and asked for a coffee, the way I always did at home. What I got was a tiny paper cup of something black and sweet, handed over a counter with no seats, and it was gone in three swallows. I stood there thinking it was a mistake. Then the man next to me drank his and we...
