Event Driven

Yesterday we went back to the street corner from Friday. I can’t believe how receptive everyone is to us hanging out and chatting.

The scene on the corner is far from still.  There is constant commotion of cars coming through, people walking by.  A couple times a night a street sweeper comes through and all the vendors and carts have to scramble onto the curb to avoid being drenched.  The cart vendors make a huge mess on the road side.  Christophe mentioned that the police consider them to be a nuisances and will harass them from time to time.  But they keep coming back. I’m beginning to learn about this anything goes mentality here…

Everyone loves to chat with us. There are a few characters in particular that I feel will be reoccurring so I will mention them below:

Bike Rental Lady:  She is the most talkative.  She is always trying to describe stories to me with hand gestures and sounds.  I gave her the name because she handed us a flier for a nearby place to rent bikes.  I am planning on buying a bike this week, but since Alex is leaving he would prefer to rent one.  We are planning on going Saturday to get a bike from her.  She stays on the street corner selling a few trinkets and jewelry to people walking by.

“Henry”:  A name I gave him, Henry is probably in his 40’s.  He has  taken a special interest in talking to me.  He absolutely loves taking pictures with me on his cell phone, and actually set one of them to the desktop background of his phone.  He seems really keen on speaking to me until I understand. He speaks slowly and uses words that he knows I will know.  I think spending time with him will be great for learning the language, and I’m glad that he seems to appreciate my company as well.

Wang, or Noodle Man:  Wang pilots a food cart that makes the most delicious stir fry noodles I’ve had yet.  He’s always offering cigarettes and will never accept our money unless we absolutely demand that he does.  A total jokester, he even let Christophe cook fried rice for himself using the wok.

These are only the people who we have spent time talking with the two times I have gone there.  I think this’ll be a regular hang out spot for the duration of my trip.