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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