That Stranger on the Street.

Hola,

I have a pineapple sitting on my desk right now. Well, actually it is sitting on my head in the photo on this post.

And no, don’t ask me how much money it cost me to get the cute little pineapple. I got it for free, personally delivered for that matter, by that “crazy, dirty, smelly and psycho looking,” Rastaman.

“Vou, you’re being judgmental or shallow,” you might say.  Well, truth is, whether we like it or not, at some point in our lives, we’ve judged someone totally based on appearance, smell or some other weird reason(s). Well, this “crazy, dirty, smelly and psycho looking,” Rastaman was one of the people I’ve judged. (Thats not to say I’ve stopped judging people. I just try to do so only when I’ve interacted with the individual well enough to draw conclusions).

You see, I judged this man even before saying a word to or even before I heard him utter a word. I saw this dude for the very first time in church. Sunday after Sunday, he sat at the same place. Whenever everyone was asked to shake hands, he never shook anyone. He was always mumbling and I never saw any church folk interact with him either.

Apart from church, I saw him on the street. Again, he always kept to him self. Never saw a smile from this man’s face and still never heard him utter any word. Well, I just judged this man. His dreadlocks were mostly untidy, his shoes were not the best looking shoes and he always looked sweaty and sort of dirty. My conclusion then- He had to be crazy, have no family and probably have some serious anger issues.

With that conclusion drawn, whenever I saw him on the road, I moved to the other side of the road, just so he wouldn’t have an episode and just punch the life out of me.

One day, all of that changed.

I was on assignment and I had to ride back to town with the guys from Government Information Services. One of the guys saw the same Rastaman and they actually greeted each other and had a very sensible conversation.

Well, me being me, I chipped in. (If you know me well, you’ll know I have the tendency to dip my finger in people’s sauce…Haha) I told him I never heard him speak before and always thought he was kind of sick. (Luckily enough, he didn’t punch me for that comment.)

After that short conversation, I felt bad for judging the man. I never saw him as a crazy dude ever again. Since that day, he always said hello. One day, he saw me buying some fruits at the grocery shop and asked if I liked fruits. Yes I do loved fruits. His follow up question was “Where do you work?”

Couple days after, I walked into the office and found fruits on my desk. He has brought me fruits at least twice after that.

Ok… I think I’ve taken more than enough of your time… Time to round this post up.

What am I trying to say after all this ranting? Try your best never to judge people you know almost nothing about. Take the time out to at least say hello to that “crazy” person you always see. You might be surprised.

A friend of mine told me once that, before we became friends, he always saw me as a very weird, sad and lonely girl. We’ve been friends for quite a while now and he thinks different of me. (Actually he still says i’m weird and a bit crazy… Dexter I think you’re weird too by the way…lol Did I just call him out? oh well…)

Okay… Good Bye.. I need to make some serious decisions on how this pineapple will be shared and consumed.

Type to you soon

🙂 Vou 🙂