A scooter jolts over a distant curb and peels off. As I hurry to see what it's fleeing, a man steps into view with an enormous red stain on his shirt. "Dear God, let that not be blood." In the minute it takes to reach him I change my mind three times on whether it's …
Dèyè mòn gen mòn. Beyond mountains there are mountains. HAITIAN PROVERB ...And right action is freedom From past and future also. For most of us, this is the aim Never here to be realized; Who are only undefeated Because we have gone on trying… T.S. ELIOT, “THE DRY SALVAGES” Mountains Beyond Mountains is …
The mirror image of the "Things that bring me joy" post. A few things that make each day that much more difficult to get through. Slum demolitions Shadia being a long ways away People who tell me that I shouldn't live where I do because there are "bad people" there The ultra-prevalence of tiny …
Soon after we came to the country, we encountered a man in our community who suffered from mental illness. He tended to sit half-dressed in the alley near our friends' room. At times he shouted incoherently and made motions with his head. He appeared to be suffering. One of my friends would sometimes sit next …
The mother of two of my students is walking down the alleyway. Her face is as beat-up as anyone I've ever seen. Black eyes, darkly swollen bruises, one of her arms in a brace...she looks like a motorcycle accident victim, but the nature of the injuries suggests a beating more than an accident. I ask …
Most of the stories I have written here happened years ago. This one was yesterday. I was walking through one neighborhood where I teach when I heard the thump of blows. I paused, discerned sobbing. Peered around the window of the home it was coming from, but could see nothing. The blows continued. Someone was …
Peregrine and I were walking home when we saw a motorcycle almost collide with a guy on a bicycle cart/rickshaw. No one was hurt, though the motorcycle guy had to hit the brakes hard to avoid a collision. He mouthed off to the bicycle guy (who was obviously poorer than him and much smaller than …
It was summer 2004, during my first trip overseas. Two friends1 and I were taking a shortcut through a park. Some distance away we saw a man knock a woman to the ground. The man then proceeded to kick the woman, hard, as she cried out. The three of us were pretty "activist", so we ran into …
A post by Peregrine As I was walking on a city street I saw a fight in progress. One man grabbed a long stick and chased another man to beat him. A third came in and also took a stick and started to beat the victim. My first thought was “Stranger uses his size to …
I was twenty years old, a young Christian, waiting to meet my friends in a Portland mall. Four women rushing up to a fellow teenager didn’t trigger “fight!” in my head, even in a spot known for occasional gang violence. "Maybe they’re running up to greet someone?" passed through my mind... When the punching started …
Stranger in a Slum 