Day 24 𖦹 HELP

TW: There is a brief mention of domestic violence around 7:05 to the 7:35 minute mark. 

Day 24 is filled with stories. All about strangers and trust. Alrighty, until tomorrow. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Day twenty-four.

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Thirty days of free tea in Mary Hernandez Park.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

You ever ask for help, Noah? I ask for help all the time. I'm I'm probably the biggest opponent that I know of asking for help. I take no shame at asking for help. I don't think we're individual creatures. You can get a long way with a shortcut. And all you have to do is just ask. The prologue.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I've always been the type of person who did not ask for help. I remember I was like an orientation leader in college, and we had like a team bonding thing. So everyone gets blindfolded, okay? And you form like a Congo line of sorts. The facilitator puts together this maze that you need to find your way out of through, and like everyone has like their right hand on a string, okay? And everyone's blindfolded. And we start walking through the maze, and you're trying to communicate with one another about like what's happening. So the person in front is like, okay, like we're turning, we're turning, and the person in the back is like, wait, wait, like, I'm not sure what's going on, and it's like there's 20 people involved, and it's absolute chaos. And the facilitator is just kind of removed from the whole situation, and they say over and over and over again, if anyone needs help, just raise your hand. And so it's going, you know, we're two minutes in, and then like all of a sudden the person in front of me, I'm holding their shoulders, disappears. And I'm like, what the fuck? Like, did they solve the maze? Like, what's going on? And then I'm like, I'm I'm on someone else's shoulders, and everyone's still really confused, but now there's only ten of us, and still, over and over, if anyone needs help, just raise your hand. If anyone needs help, just raise your hand. And I'm going and I'm going and I'm going. And all of a sudden, I'm the only person left in the maze. And I'm like, what? And I'm like, I'm gonna solve this maze. Like, everyone else figured it out. I'm still stuck in here. I'm gonna figure this out. And there's no one else talking in the room except the facilitator just saying, if you need help, just raise your hand. And I'm pretty sure they had to intervene and just like pull my blindfold off. Yeah, just felt ashamed. Felt I felt I felt ashamed.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Act one.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I was in the train station in Egypt, and it's it's just like true free-for-all. It's like people are literally shoving each other, but it's like culturally, this is just how it is. But it felt so unnatural for me to like literally like push someone out of the way. So I was just standing there for like 30 minutes, like, oh my god, like how am I gonna get to this person? When I do, I don't speak any Arabic. Like, I don't even know what ticket I'm gonna buy, I don't know how much it's gonna cost, and everyone else just has the exact change ready and is throwing it down. And I was like, oh man, I'm never gonna get to Alexandria. And then this this guy comes up to me and he's like, Do you need help? And I was like, Yes, like absolutely. And he was like, Here you go, your train's in a couple hours. Um he's like, I live around the corner, like, do you want some food? I was like, Yeah, sure. And so he invited me to his home, made me some tea, cooked an entire meal for me and his wife. And it's one of the most impactful experiences I I've been a part of. And so I think a lot of like my capacity for trusting others also came from that trip.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Act two.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

I really wanted to go on like some kind of hike, and I was walking along, walking along, and then I finally see this like group of guys, and they had this like giant log with them. And I was like, what the hell are these guys doing with that log? So I asked them if they spoke Spanish, they said they did, and I asked them what the log was for, and they were like, Oh, we're about to go down to like the water because we were up on these cliffs, we're gonna like hike down to the actual oceanside and cook some fish up. And I was like, oh cool, and they're like, come. And we're like scaling down this cliff, and we get down to the oceanside, and you know, clearly they've all done this before, they all just get right to setting up, and they start cooking like uh tajin. They just like get the fire going, they break up the log into a bunch of pieces. The other guys are like getting the Moroccan mint tea going. But then at one point they were like, hey, we're gonna go swim out to that rock out there. And I was like, I can't swim. And they like pointed to like the biggest guy in the group, and they were like, This guy can take you. And I was like, really? And they were like, Yeah, just like hold on to his shoulders. And he's like a street fighter. And I was like, Oh, like, yeah, what do you do? And he's like, I fight people under this bridge in this city. He's like, I'm well known. He's like, I win a lot. And they were all kind of like, you know, doing the motions, like, oh him, like, yeah, like boom, boom. And I was like, oh geez, but he was like so friendly and charismatic, so I was like, sure, okay, let's do it. So I'm like holding on to his shoulders, um, like for dear life, and I'm like, tengo miedo, tengo mucho, mucho miedo, like I'm so afraid, I'm so scared, I can't swim. We're in the ocean, and we swim out to the rock, they all like jump into the ocean and everything, and I'm just kind of sitting out in the middle, what feels like the middle of the ocean, and I'm like, I never could have I how am I here? Like, I I literally couldn't have physically gotten here because I can't swim. I've been like welcomed by all of these wonderful men. I was fed, I was given as much Moroccan mint tea as I could drink. So, yeah, it's like those types of experiences are what left me with such an impression to want to start something like this. Like for them, that wasn't a big deal. For them, they already had all the materials, they already had the setup, like, what's one more person coming in? Of course, we have the capacity, we have the resources, come with us. There's not a lot of that that I've experienced in the US. And now I feel like the tea stands like we've got the table, we have so much tea. Come, come sit. And then we've got green tea with mints.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Act three.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

We set up the tea stand at night for the first time ever in the park. And yeah, this woman came up around like 8, 8.30 p.m. It was dark out. And she was like, Oh, like I came by earlier earlier today, and I I didn't get tea. Like, is it okay if I get some now? And we were like, Yeah, of course, of course, that's what we're here for. And I started like picking up on some of her body language, like she seemed a little shaken up, and was like, Yeah, like you okay? Um and she was like, Yeah, honestly, I was just in a like domestic violence situation, and if you guys weren't here, I don't know where I would have gone or what I would have done. Like, I pretended that you were all were my friends, and I just came over here, and like now he's walking away in the park. When you know that there's caring observers in your environment, it changes how you act for the better. If everyone was ready to help, it becomes a much safer situation for everyone involved.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

The epilogue.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

It's six-o one.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Six-o two morrow.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Oh, the final hill. Rain, rain all day. Shiver me timbers.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

I mean, if you seriously do want dry clothes halfway through, I have a raincoat in hand so you can borrow.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Thank you. I'll let you know. I'm hoping the poncho holds up.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

You know what all this sounds like though? Help.