Hello Again, 


I am actually impressed that I am doing this again so soon, but maybe I underestimated my desire to articulate my thoughts in writing. Maybe. 


So today I went grocery shopping. I got one bag of lettuce, some baby corn and snowpeas, broccoli, and instant noodles, along with a box of bran flakes. The idea was to make a stirfry  and to wake up to a bowl of whole grain goodness for the next week. This event was totally unexceptional nor out of the ordinary. But here's what happened next: I walked by a group of boys who are "street children" or children who live on the streets or who's parents send them out to the streets to beg for food and money. They asked me to buy them bread and like always I refused. As I continued to walk home I realized that I was walking quickly with the thought "hurry up, I don't want anyone to see my grocery bags!" running though my head. Hmm, now why exactly is that? It's not because I thought I was going to get jumped for my food. Nope, far from it. I think I was a bit embarrassed by my food! 


It was as if by holding a bag of groceries I was shouting to the rest of the world, "Look here! I am able to buy things! FOOD THINGS! THINGS YOU NEED BUT CAN'T HAVE!! HAHAHAH."


I guess this is just an example of how many worlds collide here in Muizenberg and else where in Cape Town, in South Africa, in the world. And man are they different worlds.


People like me, go to cafes, eat at restaurants, buy whole grain and not whole grain food things, know how to type on a computer and have contact solution in their bathroom cupboards. And I am probably on the poor end of people like me.


But people like Sweetness (the lady that does the dishes at a cafe I go to), and the street children I ran into today, and Maria, a lady who also lives on the streets that collects the rubbish bins on Wednesdays don't frequent cafes, they work in the back of the restaurants washing dishes, they probably have never played that car racing game on Mavis Becaon. And as far as whole grain foods and contacts -- you're joking right?


We're worlds apart. Complete and total worlds apart. But we ride the same trains, we walk on the same pavements, we want the same things, but we've been set up so differently in life.  And yes, I know, I've worked hard for what I now have, but to be fair, it's probably my parents who should get a lot of credit for hustling in the States when I was young and naive to the fact that having the wrong passport or accent often means that you'll end up in the back of the restaurant instead of at the front. 


And yes, I know I am rambling. I do it often, but I guess I just wanted to say, that I am absolutely blown away by the separateness and the interconnectedness of the world. And I am not sure how to reconcile it. I am not sure what I can do about it. I know I can't do things like give to beggers or buy food for people -- if I start, I am not sure where I'll stop and I am pretty sure I will just give too much and run myself dry. But it isn't right just to ignore them -- we already do that, each and every day, if we didn't there wouldn't be homeless people and street children. 


But what can I do? 
What should I do?


Shame, man. Shame. 




thanks for reading!