Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Abraham

I met Abraham this evening. He's from Eritrea, originally. It took me longer than I expected to get home, but his smile is contagious and he had some interesting stories to tell.

He has a five-year-old son who is full of energy, and just talking Abraham it is easy to see where his son gets it. Abraham is concerned that his son has so much energy that it will be hard to get him to focus on reading, but he describes the child beginning to read in English and Arabic. Talking to him awhile longer, it is apparent that he mainly wants his son not to have to struggle as he did, to support the family and also learn to read and write at the same time.

He plays with an all Eritrean soccer team here, calling themselves the Red Sea Boys. He proudly sports the team's jersey and told me all about the group's plans for the summer to play against teams from around the world.

Abraham also told me of his work at Pizza Hut. Most of his stories centered around helping people. He let people pay later, who couldn't right away. He said most did pay, but he occasionally paid himself if he thought somebody was in trouble. He also described helping a woman who locked herself out get back into her house through a window. She was expecting an important phone call from her boss and was very relieved to be back inside.

He is a devout and outspoken Muslim, and I suspect that is why he paused for an extra moment when I explained that I had lived with Scott for 12 years but not married him. After a moment to digest the fact, he defended it aloud while explaining how great and how easy a wedding would be.

I think his enthusiasm is as contagious as his smile.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Coming back to read this again, I'm reminded that your "ramblings" are stories about people, not places. And as often as not, it's the people who are rambling and you are there for them to see and to visit.

I like that.

25 May, 2006 08:15  

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