Las circunstancias no definen un hombre pero su actitud en esa circunstancias le define.

"Las circunstancias no definen un hombre pero su actitud en esa circunstancias le define. Para mí, yo soy una persona sin hogar, pero estoy feliz"

(Circumstances do not define a man but his attitude towards those circumstances defines him. For me, I am a homeless person, but I am happy) said by Gustav, my homeless friend in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

How many times have we passed a homeless person straight or looked down on them because they were begging?

Dealing with homeless people over the years has opened up my heart in understanding the depths and variations to human life.

Some of my close friends in Trinidad will remember the random Saturday or Sunday morning when I would wake up and decide “ Oh, I am going to feed the homeless today,” and 6 KISS sandwich loaves later, a messy attempt at making cheese and tuna paste (for those that know my disaccord with cooking), and neatly wrapped sandwiches, I would trot along to Independence, Woodford and Columbus Squares, handing out sandwiches, or leaving sandwiches by the side of those that would be sleeping.

Others would remember my “ Feed the homeless” drives where I would ask people to donate non-perishable food items with self removable lids, bread and clothing and after packaging them together, I would drive around Port of Spain and Wood brook, with a friend, sharing out the packages as though it was Christmas presents being delivered on Christmas day.

I would never forget the time that after dropping off packages on Woodford square, a homeless guy came up to me and asked that he spoke to me for a minute. I had to oblige with his politeness and his smile that revealed with 3 brown tarnished teeth left in his mouth. He led me to a table on the square, where a priest was sitting. He reached into his tattered bag and pulled out a perfume and said “ This is for you” I looked at him bewildered and said, “ No sir, I cannot accept this. I appreciate the gift but I cant”.

The priest then looked at me and said “ Accept it my child, for this is his way of saying that he really appreciates what you are doing…to not accept it would be an insult to him,” and so with that in mind, I took it and smiled and softly said “ Thank you” and walked away, with a tear rolling down my cheek.

A man that has nothing shares a prized possession with a girl that has practically everything she could have wished for…

Here in Buenos Aires, in a city with almost 3 million people, there are many people that live on the streets (as with any big city). It is not strange to see a mother with her newborn baby sitting and begging at the entrance to the subte/ metro station, or to see a father with his wife and children begging outside the steps of a church or to see men rummaging though the bins or sleeping at the entrance of popular store outlets. And imagine with temperatures as low as -1 degrees Celsius, one would begin to wonder, how on earth do these people keep warm at night!   

Pile of rubble that one can see homeless folks going through

Gustav, my friend I mentioned above, is in his 70’s and lives on the streets, a couple of blocks from my apartment on Uruguay street. He is by no means a lunatic, but instead one of the most humble and soft-spoken guys I have met in this city. I had to label my first encounter with Gustav as “ Homeless guy meets Spanish-less girl” and so I would practice my Spanish with him daily as I sat at the side of the street, both of us eating fresh portugals that I would bring for him everyday. I asked him once “ Porque estas en esta situación que se vives en la calle” (Why are you in this situation where you are living on the street) to which he said “ Circunstancias.”

Gustav and I

It was amazing to see how people looked at us as they walked down the street...they were confused as to why a well dressed  “Morocha” (and I’m the only morocha/ brown girl for miles in Buenos Aires), would be sitting and having a laugh with this homeless guy. I got stares, and every time I walked down the street with a friend and shook Gustav’s hands or hugged him, my friend would say in the most confused way, “ But you are friends with him?”  But sitting there with him each time showed me that there were people that did care...that would bring him some fresh empanadas from the store, and smile as they gave it to him and then they would smile at me…. Priceless moments indeed.

I got further involved with helping the homeless through San Nicolas, a parish and an organization dedicated to making change in the lives of underprivileged people in Buenos Aires. 

Cooking food for the homeless...trying to look cool knowing very well this is not my strength!

Every Tuesday and Wednesday, we would spend time combing the streets, distributing packages of food items, blankets and mingling with the homeless.

Carrying bags of food

 As they guzzled the food, we would sit there talking “ Como te va? Que hiciste hoy?, Ves algo interesante en la semana pasada?” (How are you going? What did you do today? You see anything interesting in the past week?)

They appreciated the fact the even though I was not Argentinian, I was there helping out, and I was trying hard to communicate with them in their native tongue. They were always interested in learning about where I came from. They thought I was Colombian or Brazilian, and when I explained to them that I was from Trinidad and Tobago, they became even more intrigued with learning more about this country and so I would sit there, drawing on the waste paper they got out of the garbage bin, where Trinidad was located and talking to them about my country: “ Es un país in El Caribe. Los país limfrofres son Barbados, Granada y Venezuela. Es muy cerca de Venezuela y es la isla mas sud en el Caribe. Trinidad y Tobago son dos islas pero un país. Trinidad es la capital industrial del Caribe porque de petróleo. Sin embargo, Tobago es una isla muy pequeña con playas lindas. Las playas tienen agua azul y arena blanca. Tienen mucho turista.  La capital es Puerta España y el país tiene un millón tres cien mil habitantes”  and so I would carry on the conversation as they asked about carnival, music, sports, the people, the economy.   

 (I have to thank my Spanish professor at the University of Buenos Aires for ensuring that I knew how to talk about my country!)   

They were always eager to learn and to share. They would show us their prized possessions which ranged from an old note book they got out of the bins where one drew very artistically on it, to pictures of their loved ones and family (very heartbreaking when they would show this), to a rosary, to a bottle of Coca Cola that they filled with soda from multiple, semi-filled waste bottles that people that discarded.

We have had many heartwarming moments, and we will continue to, until I leave this great city. They never pass me straight on the streets and always shout out “Mococha!“ from the other side of the street, and would wave with such enthusiasm.

I wanted to videotape some whilst they were talking about their circumstances, but they were not comfortable and I respected that.

To say the least, I will miss interacting with them but I will not miss freezing in -1 degrees Celsius!

 However as I end this blog, I wanted to leave readers something I pondered “ If some of these homeless people, were given possible opportunities that some of us had or have, would they not have made themselves into someone? (Now I am not debating that some would have truly had opportunities and either were not prepared to grab them or wasted the opportunity all together, but there are some that just truly did not have a break in life)

 And if so, if we were to look at everyone around us in our lives, from the garbage collector, to the gardener, to the cleaner, they too may not have been given the opportunities that we would have had…therefore, must we not treat everyone with the love and respect they deserve despite status? Think about it…