refusal, confusion & enthusiasm

10:52 pm

On my last trip to the Pelourinho, I met “Jr.” (boy in checked shirt) my tour guide/sandwich promoter of the night. He walked around with me…and brought back people from the shadows for sandwiches… so much though, that I couldn’t get the sandwiches out of his hands…. This sort of enthusiasm was very inspiring. He didn’t make a different between young and old, he just recognized hunger, and brought it back to me. I enjoyed having his presence around me that night .. plus he can sing!!....he has so much charisma and star like energy…… and a little baby Jamie Fox face too… ;-)



Today I went up into the favela (slum) right behind the house I’m staying in … I was accompanied by the local security guard along with a group of five other boys who I gave sandwiches to. Walking up the uneven steep hill… I couldn’t help but think of the old grandmothers who make this trip everyday. We saw a little girl in a tattered dress walking with two twin boys who had the most confused looks on their faces when I offered them my sandwiches. They took them reluctantly, but I had to reassure them to eat it before they ran away smiling.

Encounters at Pelourinho:

One child was passing dressed in a long dark red shirt carrying 3 coconuts. I asked him if he wanted a sandwich. And we said he didn’t have any way of carrying it. I said sit here a moment and eat. And he said he didn’t want it…… I was puzzled…. I couldn’t figure out why a child who’s thigh is as big as my arm wouldn’t take a free sandwich….. then Josuel mumbled to my friend that he was high … on drugs and wasn’t hungry anymore…

This bit of reality hit me .. and resurfaces every time a frail human being refuses the food I am offering.