George Moved

 

During the month of March in Brazil is the heavy rain season. They say that it is due to the fact that it is the end of summer, therefore, it doesn´t rain but pours. It is a scary time of the year (when it isn´t a drought period) because the sky can be beautifully clear and towards the end of a hot and stuffy day, heavy dark clouds appear literally out of the blue. Before you know it, the thunder is clapping, and the lightening is striking. The sky tears open, and buckets of water are thrown down.

On occasions like these, I say a little prayer to get home safely by avoiding the areas where it usually floods. Also zigzagging to avoid the tired old tree that are knocked down by the gusting winds. You can tell by now, that I loathe this time of the year. I haven’t stopped to reflect about the reason. Perhaps it is because I do not know how to swim. Maybe it is because my car is small and bigger cars like to drive as if they are the owners of the roads. Whatever the reason may be, the butterflies that live inside my stomach get aroused when the day turns into night at 3 pm.

The other morning, I had an early appointment and decided to drive by George´s wagon. George is a homeless man who lives in a wagon on the corner of the block near my home. (You can read about him in the post: https://alitbitofme.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-wagon-home.html ) He is not actually homeless because his wagon is his home. He just doesn´t have a building and pay taxes on it. But he is a city dweller, nonetheless. The reason I drove by there was that I wanted to see if he was all right. To my horror, his wagon was gone. Unfortunately, I had an appointment and couldn´t stop to find out what had happened.

As I drove on, I started to become sad thinking that someone could have stolen his wagon and even physically hurt him in doing so. My heart sunk. There are evil people in all areas. I knew I was jumping to conclusions at this point, but it was the only thing of which I could think. What could be another plausible reason?

On my way back home, I ran into a neighbor who happened to be closer to George and asked her what had happened. She had mentioned that he had been moved by the city workers due to the floods. Too much rain in the past few weeks. There was one night that he almost lost all his belongings. They decided that he would be safer on another street and helped him get there.

His new spot is not as beautiful as the one he had been at for these past years; however, he did not mind for he knew that it was for his own good. Now, he has to learn how to share the sidewalk with other street dwellers. Before he lived on his own, meaning that he had no neighbors.

 

At the end of the day, I am glad that he is safe.

 

Written: March 17, 2022 

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Theft in the Cul-de-sac

 

These gray walls seem as if they are going to swallow me. I stare at them all day long; except for when they let me out in the sun as if I where a plant and needed to photosynthesize. My body ached a lot and there are days when I can´t even turn over on my cot- this cannot be referred to as a bed.  On these days I was reminded of how I got here.

Mari-Gras, around 3:00 AM in the morning, my body started aching because it had been a few days since the last time I was able to buy some drugs; mainly the rock.  Living off the streets is really hard and the rock was what I had to look forward to, besides that, it would keep my stomach from growling and hurting. The rock helped me to lie down and not be worried about the weather, people walking by and most importantly, the mosquitoes. How I hate mosquitoes. You would think that the more I stunk the more they would stay away, but unfortunately it was the opposite. All these reasons led me to act and fast.

Quietly and from a short distance, I had kept an eye on a few places nearby and I noticed that there were a lot of cul-de-sacs; dead end streets filled with small homes. Here they called them small villas, but that didn´t fit the description of the word. (By now you might be thinking that I am illiterate. You are wrong.) I noticed that many of these cul-de-sacs had gates to keep unwanted people away; however, there was one that had no gate whatsoever. I spent some time around it to see the people who would come in and out of it.

Having overheard some of the dwellers mention that they would be going to the Mari-Gras parties even though they were prohibited due to the pandemic, so on this day I decided to explore it.

I walked in around 3:00 AM. I was very quiet although I knew many were not at home. I checked the cars for the alarms. I noticed that there was this one older car at the end of the street that did not have an alarm. The hood was turned to the part that was well illuminated. It seemed as if they were helping me out.  I opened the doors, which are very easy to open nowadays just like a can of beer, checked for valuable things that I could sell and make some money so I could buy my drugs. The only things that I was able to take were: the car battery that would have given me at least 50 bucks; the spare tire which I could also sell for any amount 'cause it didn't really matter I just needed some money; and this cool pair of sunglasses; so cool that I thought I would keep them for myself. Everything else in the car was worthless.

I couldn't carry the battery and the spare tire at the same time, so I took the battery home and came back for the spare tire. When I finished ransacking this car, it was around 4:00 AM, so I just left.

First thing I did was take the sunglasses to a drug dealer that I usually bought my stuff off of and exchanged it for a stone which would last me a couple of days. He was grateful for the exchange and gave me a bigger rock than usual. ‘Don´t use it all at once or it´ll kill you’. I thought it was funny that everything he sold could kill me but he was still worried about my life as if he were an older brother or father. The other people on the streets just said that if I died, it´d be one customer less. Whatever the reason, I liked it when he said it.

A few weeks later I decided to go back into the same cul-de-sac and noticed that one of the fancy cars did not have an alarm on or perhaps the owner had forgotten to turn it on. Once again, these people were facilitating my life. I was thrilled because it had a really nice radio and for sure that radio would get me a couple of rocks instead of just one. As before, I broke into the car, checked for valuables and I didn't see anything that would be useful or get me some change so I decided to just take the radio and be on my way.

In the back of my mind, I thought that this place for sure would have put up a gate at entrance to the cul-de-sac the street to close off unwanted people. For sure I was an unwanted person, however, that was not the case in this place. I noticed that the valuables were the automobiles while some of the homes were a bit run down. It seemed like they worked hard to have the few things they had. Who was I to judge? I lived on the streets.

A few more weeks went by and I decided to go back to that place, which still had no protection. I walked in and started looking around to see what I could take. I found the first car I had stolen the battery, the sunglasses and spare tire from but it was turned around in a different direction which made it harder for me to do the same thing; it was dark. For sure by now these people had bought a new battery and a new spare tire. By turning the car around, I realized they knew I could come back and tried to make it harder for me. Nonetheless, I just let that go and headed towards the other side where the fancy car I had taken the radio from was. I noticed that the radio had been replaced, but this time the person had remembered to turn on the alarm and that would be too risky. Breaking into the houses would be super hazardous. I just needed stuff to buy drugs, I didn´t want to hurt anyone.

To my surprise, as I was walking out of the cul-de-sac, there was a police car at the entrance and I had nowhere to run to.  Apparently, they did not have a gate to keep out unwanted people, but they did have security cameras. My face was all over the place and it had been the third time I was wearing the small blue jersey.  If I had known about the camera, I would have worn a mask. Perhaps I should have, especially because of COVID, but hey, I have other things to worry about.

So, it looks like I'll be doing some time for theft and since it is not my first offense, I will be getting more time in the slammer. I lay here staring at these gray walls. It isn´t that bad- there is food and shelter. Guess that sometimes you win some and sometimes you lose some.

Written: March 5, 2022 (Based on an incident that happened during Mari-Gras to a friend. They have not caught the thief.)

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It Could Have Been Worse

Although the clouds were getting darker and it was around 37 degrees Celsius, in my mind, I thought that I would be able to get home before this storm. I had been to my mom’s to visit her a bit because it had been some time since I had done that due to covid although some people think it is gone. I had only been there for a few hours when she said that I had better leave before the storm hit. Moms always know best, therefore I left.

On the home on the way home I remembered that I needed to buy food for my pets, so I stopped off at this big pet shop. If I hadn't been distracted with all those cat trees and all those cats up for adoption, it could have been different.

As I was heading towards the cash register, I heard this pounding noise that just started getting louder and louder. First, I thought it was in my head, but then I realized that it was the rain coming down. The cashier was very sweet and polite and started small talk. I guess she didn't notice that panic was taking over me. I thanked her and headed towards my car which was parked in front of the store - luckily. However, I still couldn't get in. There was just too much water coming down and because of the heat if I got wet, it would just fog up all of my windows; so, I decided to wait.

Nevertheless, the rain came down in buckets; the street turned into a river and every time a speeding car would drive by a wave would form and head towards the store. So much so that the store owner decided to close the door so that the water would stop coming inside. When he did this, there power went off. Oh no! No a/c! Until that moment we were comfortable and felt safe. I was sitting in a somewhat comfy chair in front of the place where the pets are groomed.  The water was coming in not only due to the waves but also due to the wind. The wind was scary and so powerful that it was bending the trees over. I broke out in a nervous sweat. As I waited, I kept on thinking: ‘it could be worse’.

There were around 25 people waiting for the rain to die down; we waited and waited for a good 30 minutes, but when you have nothing to do 30 minutes can feel like 30 hours. Every time that I thought the rain was dying down, it was just the wind shifting it's coarse. This was the kind of storm that not even an umbrella could save you because a man walked by and his umbrella just turned up; so, he too got into the store. He knocked on the door; the shopkeeper opened it.

We waited and waited 10 more minutes. I started thinking that if this rain reached my neighborhood, I'd never get into my home because for sure the streets there would be flooded.

This woman who was standing next to me started grabbing her bags and saying that she could make it; she needed to leave and it seemed to have died down. I looked out the shop window and saw that the street was still a river but passable. I asked the woman who was getting ready to leave if some specific streets flooded and she kind of told me to take the main avenue which for sure would not flood. However, she was wrong. I managed to get into my car a little bit wet even so the windows did fog up and I started my adventure heading home.

The drive was an adventure for sure. The bigger the car, the bigger the wave. But the street was kind of slanted to the side so of course there was more water towards the sidewalks than in the middle of the lane. Nonetheless, those big cars made it a point of wetting people on the sidewalk- as if they weren´t wet enough. They drove was as if they were playing a video game; the more people you wet the more points you get. It didn't make any sense to me, however, at some point it was good that they were in front of me because as they detoured the fallen trees so did I.

I headed towards the specific avenue that the woman had mentioned, but it was no help because all of the waterfalls (the water from the streets were all cascading down) just ended up there.  So, I started trusting my intuition and turning left and right; avoiding these trees and flooded streets. I had never seen so many trees that had fallen. Mind you, it was still pouring; not as bad as when I was in the store waiting. However, it was still heavy and I was still panicking. It's funny how with age approaching I am panicking more nowadays than when I was younger. How I hate driving in the rain, especially during the rainy season in this tropical country.

After several turns, I ended up in the place that I had never been before - on streets that I had never driven on before. I just started going left and right and I kept thinking ‘you have to go up, you have to go up because there the streets won't be so flooded’. But going up didn't mean I was going into the direction of my home – I was lost!

All of a sudden, I remembered that I could turn on my GPS. Funny how when you don't rely on the GPS, you tend to forget that it exists. So, I found a safe place to stop and turned on my Google Maps - the one that I like to use. That bitter, shrill female voice from Google Maps, which drives me crazy sometimes, started comforting me. I knew that she would get me to where I had to go.  I just wanted to be on a street or an avenue that I recognized.

When I started using it, I was notified that I was 8 minutes from my home. I was so relieved I could have gotten out of the car, jumped up and down and done the happy song but I didn't. With the first ‘50 meters turn left’ I knew where I was, which was also a relief because I could turn off that horrible voice.

It suddenly dawned on me that the rain had struck my neighborhood.in case she had heard anything on TV about the storm and floods. She did not, but reminded me that I shouldn't go the way that I usually go home. Her suggestion was for me to take the long way home. At this moment I was reminded of the Supertramp song. Mom´s always know best but we are stubborn children. I noticed other drivers going down that way I wanted to go, so I did. Luckily the floods had gone down. In fact, there was only a big pool of water at the bottom of my street.  I said a little prayer, sucked it up and went which was great because my car didn't get stuck, but it could have.

As I was driving up the street, I started getting relieved because my home is on a hill but to get there you do have to go around and all the streets around surrounding the building flood. What a relief! Finally, as I parked my car in my spot and turned the key filled with gratitude, I thought ‘it could have been worse’.

For a few seconds I started thinking that it was only water. Why did I panic so much? Ok, so I do not know how to swim, but I was in a store with other people. If I passed out or something, people would help me. It could have been worse. It could have been bombs. This thought took me to the wars going on in the world thinking of the way these people live in constant stress, pain, sadness and constant dread.

Before getting out of my car, I said a prayer.

Written: March 2, 2022

 

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Vikings

 

An interesting and intriguing group of people they were. Vikings is the term used to refer to the peoples of Germanic origin inhabited Scandinavia during the VIII and XI centuries, known as the Viking era, which was a period marked by marine expeditions throughout various European regions. Their weapons were swords and axes.

There are three series on Netflix, which I must confess that I did enjoy watching. They are:  The Last Kingdom, Vikings and now Vikings Valhalla. All of these series have a lot of seasons and long episodes. I'm intrigued by the language, the cloths, the thoughts and customs. There are times when I need to close my eyes because of the violent scenes; I am only human. The writers have done their research well; the people who made history appear or are mentioned in all three shows.

I believe that these shows aren't for everyone especially because people at the time used to live on a daily basis their main objective was to reach Valhalla, which to them was the afterlife- heaven. However, to reach Valhalla you needed to die in combat; you needed to die defending your people or you could sacrifice your life. You need to have the stomach for this kind of show or close your eyes or even just fast forward it during the war scenes. Nonetheless, I recommend them.

February 28, 2022

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War Has Begun

 

February 24, 2022 will be a day to remember and heartfelt all over the world. The day Russia launches a massive invasion of Ukraine. Explosions were heard in multiple major Ukrainian cities which later the government claimed were missile strikes on locations including military headquarters and airports according to the news reports that I was able to accompany.

For several hours air raid sirens could be heard throughout Kiev. Can you imagine hearing sirens non-stop knowing that the city is going to be attacked at any moment? Traffic jams, bumper to bumper of families- mostly on foot- trying to cross the border to another country. The warning that danger is heading your way and you need to run for cover. Fathers saying goodbye to their children, who are heading to safety shelters, wailing like babies not knowing whether they will be able to see each other again. It is a heartbreaking and shouldn't be happening.

The Russian president, Putin, has said that the aim of the operation is not to occupy the Ukraine but the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine.  Civilians killed - men, women and children; buildings destroyed; fear and trauma for no reason. If I'm not mistaken these excuses were given by Hitler during the 2nd World War.  (I am not a history expert, but there are some facts that I do remember) .

The Russian leader can give all the lame excuses he can think of; nonetheless, the only reason that a war is begun is to steal and rob – lands, lives, anything that belongs to others.

Wasn't there enough pain and destruction already done to the world during the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Is a third one really necessary? When are people going to learn that nothing belongs to us? We are just here to evolve; just passing by. It could be done with love and peace, not hate and war.

May peace prevail and reign!

February 25, 2022

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When a writer dies…

 

when a writer dies

the world turns gray.

the reader cries

the writer has nothing else to say.

 

the family grieve

they have lost a mother or a father

broken is the family weave

they've lost a sister or brother.

 

people say the writer´s voice will be heard

the words on paper live on

thoughts about feelings, wilderness and birds

some poems transformed into songs.

 

when a writer dies

voice and thoughts written without a stutter.

words spread out on paper like butter or crunchy peanut butter

the corpse voice speaks loud in the reader's mind

like an usher escorting the reader to foreign lands

lands where disappointment and dreams can be uttered.

 

when a writer dies

colleagues gather to pay tribute

words, poems, chants, prose, applause

a writer's body may die,

but the voice will echo forever.

February 18, 2022

(There is no structure in this poem. I realize that it may sound funny at times. However, it is a tribute to a fellow writer who passed in February.)

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