another day london

August 16, 2011

My journey home from the Sunshine International Arts mas camp was none other than eventful. I concluded my day of painting a 5ft high and 5 ft wide African mask and bird with multicolored paints, all the while enjoying the soca music and lively conversation with Ray….my recorder button was not on play so I have to re record the interview he graciously allowed me to do…..in any effort….I was impressed with my work…and I believe he was as well……I just realized I still have my Jamaican beef patty waiting for me….I am in the middle of cooking bangers and mash……( really I am roasting sausages and white potatoes in the god forsaken awful oven they call a cooker)….that sucka takes for evah to heat up and I am never absolutely sure of what temperature I have set it…..Celsius…..what the hell is that…..didn’t we abandon that metric system notion in the third grade?....anyway….I ramble because it is the only way to get out the many thoughts permiating in my head…..I saw various wonders today…including a little girl in a hot pink sweat shirt dancing mindlessly without a care in the world on her balcony as I rode the overhead train…..I notice two African women in western clothing chatting as if somebody had done somebody wrong……a big ole English bloke sneeze into his hand and wipe it on his pants…..a traveler from the middle east wheeling a ‘target’ shaped storage bin wrapped in gaff tape atop her rolling suitcase….a couple of British ladies sipping wine and eating cheese in the corridor of the St. Pancras international train station….mind you that is where I finally arrived after falling asleep in the train from Brixton…..my adventures may seem strange to some…..out of the ordinary to others….unconscionable to many…but to me….it is just another day in my life as I wonder through the streets, alleyways, train stations and roads of London…..I find myself almost comfortable with myself in this environment……I of course have not the luxury of my own home….I miss my bed and pillows……but I find that I can rest at times……find moments to reflect…..greet strangers with the knowledge that they too may be living a routine that at some point presents them with the random encounter of a foreigner…..me a foreigner…..it sounds funny….but I have accepted that notion…for I am not a brit…I do not speak with my vowels open….I close the sound of my ‘r’ and often have to turn my head ever so slightly to the left or right to symbolically tell my counterpart that I do not know what the heck they are saying……after a brief smile and a widening eyed glance they figure it out and repeat themselves….allowing me the opportunity to readjust my hearing and focus…..it has been an endearing experience…again……the language…geesh…I must sound pretty strange to them….but not strange enough because Tiana, the 14 year old student working in the mas camp since she was 9 years old, upon realizing that I was from California, wanted to know if I knew anybody famous… now who was I gonna mention that she would recognize….to her curious delight…I told her I knew Jill Scot and her eyes widen brightly……I smiled and settled back into the painting job we had begun a few hours ago…..she is a good listener and takes directon well……I can see the true benefit of this camps message……catch em young…..talk to then while they want to listen and provide them with a little bit of hope and knowledge that the world is bigger than the six blocks that make up their neighborhood and you have a recipe for giving a young person a bowl of hope mixed with the spices of life…….