a drop of water

Meet Shaun. A painter by trade, currently homeless due to totaling his car while under the influence. He said that you just can’t get a painting job here without a car. He grew up in San Diego with his 4 siblings and went to Point Loma High School. His Mom moved back to the midwest when his Father died to be with family. Shaun went with her at first but then came back out to San Diego because of the area. Shaun’s favorite food is seafood, he likes the crustaceans like lobster and crab and clam but really can’t afford it right now on his current income. He says that when opportunity comes he will step into it, but for now he will just ride out this part part in his life.

Meet Pat. A fifty year old who was on the brink of tears as he explained to me how we probably made more people happy today than we could have in a month doing something else and that once he gets back up on his feet, he wants to do the same for other homeless people. He grew up near SDSU and attended Crawford high school. A year ago Pat explained how he would have never thought he would be homeless. He had a good route selling bottled water and was making good money. One night after admittedly drinking a little too much, his girlfriend asked him to go run some errands. When he got back he was arrested. She had called the police and accused him with domestic violence. He’s lost pretty much everything. Pat is hopeful though. He’s finishing up his parole and although still healing from the experience, he feels as if he has a direction and wants to get back into his old life.

Meet Armando and Jeffrey. Armando is a hair dresser by trade and showed noticeable care for his partner, Jeffrey’s well being by saving a water for him. Armando’s parents were in the Korean war, his Dad was a soldier and his Mom was a nurse. Armando talked about the drama that was going in on the park and how stressful it was to be homeless. “People consider their bags like we would our homes,” he explained. “You don’t go into someone’s home and take things. People have been going into each others bags and taking stuff and its creating a lot of drama. It’s stressful because we are homeless and we see families and houses around us at the park and we remember what we used to have. Our desires in our head go into our actions and people take each others stuff.”

Meet Martine. He is a cook by trade, recently working at Pick-Up-Stix. He said he was in the middle of a 1-2 month break. He knows how to make California rolls but doesn’t like the wasabi taste very much. He was very thankful for the food that we brought, but didn’t eat any himself. He invited us to come out to a BBQ at the park a week and a half from now on Saturday. I don’t think he is homeless but he identifies with the homeless and wants to help them as much as he can.

Meet Kevin. Very boisterous and definitely high on something (life, vodka, some kind of smoke). Considered the park his living room and seemed sarcastically angry at people for walking through his living room and disturbing the peace. He explained how no male in his family had lived past the age of 60 and that they had a hereditary partiality to lung cancer regardless of their smoking habits. At age 43, Kevin doesn’t believe he’ll live past 50, despite appearing in his mid 30s. His brother died at 46 from stage 4 lung cancer. Kevin has some work, but it’s not consistent and he spends his money on alcohol and smokes, and takes pride in using and abusing his body. He calmed down a lot after smoking his homemade tobacco cigarette.