Life can be hard...

E

ecos

Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
154
Last week me and my fiancee were sitting at a hamburger kiosk when a local homeless guy came up. This man has been homeless for a good 20ish yrs now and nobody knows where he came from, he has no family that anyone knows of, and is mute so he can't communicate. I see him in the market area quite a bit.....he collects recyclable trash he can sell for a few pesos, and eats scrap food that people throw away. He is not all there in the head....I'm not sure if he was born that way or if it was from an accident, he has some pretty bad scars, with several being on his head. His only belongings that we know of are the tattered shorts he wears, an empty rice sack, and woven basket for carrying things he finds. No shoes, no shirt, nothing else. The vast majority of the population flat out ignores him....hes like a ghost walking through society with nobody offering any recognition.

He is not in this situation from drugs, alcohol, or laziness. He can't afford the former, and he does try to work by collecting garbage to sell. He is not a career beggar, in fact he almost never asks for anything....he just waits to see if you leave a little Mt. Dew in the bottom of your bottle he can drink, or if you throw away a piece of hamburger bun he can eat.

Well we were sitting at the hamburger place (we of course bought him dinner) and we were asking the cook if she has ever heard him talk. Her response was "No, but I've heard him cry. Sometimes he collects scrap for days then the garbage men take his bag, throw it away, and he cries." That might have been the most pitiful thing I had ever heard. I felt physically ill after she said that.

I'm not sure why I'm sharing this....I guess to put things in perspective. I have a phrase I've said since my teen years when I find myself complaining "well at least I don't have leprosy..." Half joking/half serious statement that even though I'm having problems, life could be much, much worse. I think this situation will probably come to mind for the rest of my life when I'm feeling put upon.
 
Its tough to see stuff like that. Go north or east of where i live (St. Louis) and it's like a third world country. There's not a whole lot you can do about it, especially because just going there is risking your life.

Maybe wouldn't be a bad idea to get a cheap little bookbag and put some food, clothes, and maybe an SAK in there and give it to him if you can find him. It would be probably be the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him.
 
back when i used to go to puerto rico i would see homeless everywhere in the larger cities. it really makes you appreciate what you have
 
"There but for the grace of God go...."
 
OzarkCreekWalker said:
Its tough to see stuff like that. Go north or east of where i live (St. Louis) and it's like a third world country. There's not a whole lot you can do about it, especially because just going there is risking your life.

Maybe wouldn't be a bad idea to get a cheap little bookbag and put some food, clothes, and maybe an SAK in there and give it to him if you can find him. It would be probably be the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him.
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Been through East St Louis area years ago...wasn't very pretty. Reminded me of Flint and Detroit. I thought of the bookbag idea too but the cheap bags I bought for myself here fell apart after a few weeks light use, a good one would run about $20..which is enough money to feed him for about a month...I'm not even sure if he would end up using the bag. I run into him once a week or so, and we buy him something from a nearby store. If near a burger joint he gets hamburgers, if near a fruit stand he gets fruit, etc.

Actually hes right outside my gate at the moment...just gave him some water and bought him some baked goods. I was going to snap a pic of him but we are doing some woodwork in the yard and hes watching...I don't want to offend him by taking a pic and make him feel hes a raree show.

I should probably buy him some clothes his size to keep here for next time he comes around. I would give him some of mine but I'm literally about twice his size. I've thought of offering him a part-time job...have him clean up the neighborhood in return for food or money (not sure if he knows how to use money...nobody has ever seen him use it..I'm wondering if the recycling place pays him in food) but I don't think hes quite there enough to grasp the concept. It's really hard to tell how far gone he is mentally. All communication is done with gestures and grunts, and when you ask him questions sometimes he seems to follow and sometimes not. I'm not sure if thats due to his mental condition or if bad comprehension is from years of nobody talking to him.

Yeah there are a lot of homeless in the area (living outside a big city), some are career, some aren't. This guy always stood out to me because he tries hard to take care of himself even though he has more challenges than most of us. Another lady that stuck out in my mind was a woman about 3yrs ago. I walked by her as she was digging through the garbage. She pulled out some chicken bones and started gnawing on them. I stopped to offer her some money and she refused it..just kept saying "k lang" which basically means "It's ok." or "I'm ok."

Breaks your heart.
 
I have a few homeless people where I live and they dont complain about much. I applaud those who have managed to live without the daily "necessities" that we cant seem to live without. And I respect those who are self sufficient and can live progressively like that. They probably didn't ask to end up like that but you wont find to many of them asking to get out of it. They have created a self sustaining life for themselves and for that I tip my hat.

It is very hard to see such things and then to think that we Americans are growing thousands of acres of non edible corn just to burn in out cars (BTW, ethanol will destroy your car, not help it).
 
Thats sad. You rarely see this where I come from but when you do it just makes me sick, I always throw a bit of change to them if I have it on me. I would caution you to be very careful with what you do get him, it would be nice to give him some of the things you mentioned but you have to remember that some of these "nice" things could get him killed. I would bet that there are others around him that would take these things if they don't have them as well.
 
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