Feed the Homeless: Benjamin - 51 years old (New York Edition)

New York. Saturday, June 15, 2019

Biking around busy New York’s streets trying to find a homeless person was my goal. There he was, sitting on the sidewalk with his torn gray backpack. I offered to buy him lunch and he seemed very eager to accept. So we headed to the nearest deli to grab our food.

We walked over to Central Park and found a vacant bunch. We started chatting about today’s politics around the world. Benjamin, a Nigerian citizen, proceeded to share his experiences when he was back home. He is a war survivor and he saw things he didn’t wish on anybody to see. The unfortunate part of his life story he said is not only seeing dead bodies everywhere but also losing family except for his son who he fled with to Egypt and then they immigrated to the USA under refugee status.

Benjamin's profession is carpentry at which he excelled back home, but had a hard time finding a  steady job here. Also, Benjamin hasn’t seen his son since they parted way over 8 years ago but he hopes to see him someday. Time passed by too quickly, so we had to wrap up and go our separate ways. We gave each other’s a hug and wished for a great day.

Feed the Homeless: Shawn - 46 years old

Edmonton, Alberta. Sunday, May 26th, 2019 

On a hot Sunday afternoon, I was driving around Southgate mall on the look for a homeless person for about an hour with almost no luck. So I made the decision to go to 97th, however, as I turned on to 111 street, there I found him - settled under a tree and a shopping cart filled with miscellaneous items.

I parked the car and walked towards him so I can ask him to join me for a meal. After some hesitations, he accepted my offer for a bite to eat. So then the 46 years old Shawn and I went to the food court in the mall to have our meal. We both ordered A&W, as it’s his favourite and we sat down only a couple of tables away from the place.

At first, silence seemed to be the theme of this meal as his answers were short to most of my questions. However, that changed when I asked him to tell me a story. His story(s) branched out into too many scattered events that were a bit hard to follow. The theme was mostly: that he had a tough childhood - always picked on because of his weight. “People and my brothers kept on making fun of me and no one gave a rat's ass about how did that make me feel. Drugs were my escape”. Shawn said.

We finished our meals and kept chatting for a while. He is excited about the summer and is hoping that he gets a job soon so he doesn’t have to stay in the shelter. I told him that I will keep an eye for him on jobs and a way to get in touch with him - if you know of any jobs let me know as well and I will let him know. We decided to wrap it up and go our separate ways. So we walked back to his cart and we wished each other’s a good evening.