When evening comes
When evening comes
I was standing at the waterfront in Paramaribo at dusk about to take this picture, when a homeless guy walked up to me to ask me for some money. He stood next to me while I continued to look at the sky and waited for the light to get more interesting. At the same time I listened to him while he explained that he was really hungry, hadn’t eaten for a while and would really love to buy himself a good meal. He then proceeded to describe in great detail what kind of food he would buy and how he had been longing for a while now to be able to enjoy the taste of such a meal again. I’m used to homeless people asking me for some spare change, but the kind of food this guy wanted to buy would easily cost at least 20 times more compared to what they usually ask for. I got curious and started asking him questions about his background and family, trying to find out how he got into the situation he’s in right now.
After a short conversation during which he answered my questions I put down my camera, reached for my wallet, took out some money and gave it to him. I gave him enough to be able to buy at least two of the meals he described to me. He looked at the money in his hands, looked at me, and then as he clearly started to feel a little emotional and couldn’t look me in the eyes anymore, looked away over the river. Since I’m not very good at handling emotional situations, I looked away over the river too and took another couple of snaps. After a minute or so when his emotions subsided a little he looked at me again and expressed his gratitude with a trembling voice. I gave him a smile and nodded, but started to feel really sad on the inside.
I was already picked up so I told him I had to leave, said goodbye and walked towards the car that was parked further away in the distance. Half way to the car I heard him calling me from behind, so I stopped and turned around. He walked up to me and said, “My brother, be very careful ok? Don’t let anyone ever do you any harm. Ok?” I think I must have looked surprised at first, wondering why he felt the need to tell me that (*), but then I smiled and nodded and continued walking towards the car. I felt more depressed than usual, felt guilty in a way, and started wondering again, as I often do, why I had to live in such a cruel world. I got inside the car and the driver looked at me and asked where I wanted to go. I sighed deeply and answered, “Take me home.”
(*) Days later my dad would tell me about a dream my mom had, where she saw me wading through a very dirty place in thick mud, and told me I should probably be careful. Coincidence? Perhaps. Certainly interesting seeing as how there was a single bird flying high up against the dramatic and stormy looking sky in the above picture.
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