My little experiences with the truth: The seventeenth and the last of the exploring expedition... I finsihed exploring the area yesterday!

Dear readers,

It is finish! My exploring and mapping of the city had been finished. I had walked every streets, alleys, parking lots, bridges in an area bounded by College Ave. on the East, Alpine Ave on the West, Wealthy St. on the South and Leonard St. on the North. It was such a great experience. I learned so much about the city and its people. I enjoyed every conversations and its participants that took place during my explorations. It was truly a blessing for me to able to see the city in such a way - two feet, a note book, lose paper of maps, camera, a book about edible wild plants and my pair of glasses.

The day started with pouring rain which forced me to took shelter at a local coffee shop. I enjoyed the sight of the rain and deep down, I was sad about my yearning for a shelter at such a beautiful sight. I wish I can freely in the rain. I can, I must say. I had chosen for myself not to be free in the rain. I cannot blame anyone but me. Maybe next time.

The rain come to a halt at around 12:00pm. I arrived at where I left off at the end of the last exploring expedition with a hungry stomach. I explored a bit on a main street and trying to find a cheap bite. I realized how many Mexican restaurants were around me. I am guessing that the high population of Mexican immigrant who reside in the area had brought rise to the Mexican food businesses. As I further explored, I came across a Mexican bakery. I never been in a Mexican bakery and tasted a Mexican bake good. I was so very excited and I knew then and there that I had found my lunch. I walked in the door as the pleasant odor escape. It was not easy to make a choice on all the variety all delicious looking bake good but I did. As I was paying for the purchase, the gentleman behind the counter smile and say,"You take this one for free, and if you like it, come back and get more!" It was so kind of him. To him, it was not the money transaction from the purchase that is most important but the appreciation that I might have for his bake goods. It was so beautiful. I can tell that it is a family runs business run by a local family as the friends of that gentleman behind the cash machine were gathering next to him, awaiting for him to becomes available again. Something about a local restaurant that runs by a local family that is so wonderful to me. It is so much more personal and communal to me. I can ask that gentleman what is in the bread, when they first opened the business or what is happening in town tonight, and he would be able to answer me all those question with confidence. Since he lives in the area, it made him a neighbor for the people in the area. People in that area no longer buying from stranger, but a person, a family, a business that share some of the same history as them. It is truly a beautiful thing to have such relationship with someone so close to our life. Had you ever realized how close our postman, our cashiers in the grocery store, our brewers in the local coffee shop and our waitresses in our favorite restaurant, are to our life? They are so close to us at any of those given shared moment, if you really think about it.

Another event that left a deeper mark on my mind is the image of a drunken man with a empty liquor bottom in his right left pocket, lying lifelessly in front of the front step of a home. I came across him as I traveling through a neighborhood composed mostly minority according to my observation. He was lifeless with his eye close. I did not know what to do at that moment. I was speechless. He is not the first drunken, lifeless body that I ever saw in my life, but the ones that I had encountered before never was at a place like this, a neighborhood full of house. I had came across them in a street famous for its homeless shelter and food kitchen; I had met them on a street in a slum at Nairobi, Kenya, but not a place like this. There was a car pulling right up to that front step as I was contemplating on my next action. A group of teenagers and few young child came out of the car and walked up to the house after few glance of the lying body. I don't want to put my noise into someone's business so I slowly walked away. I know that the people of that house know that man as they call the man by name as they try to wake him up. It was a sad picture as I watch them to just yelling at him without offering a hand to help him up. I always wonder, is this world of ours truly this unbearable that some of us have to knock ourselves out so we don't have to face it no more? I wish I helped him, in any way.

The exploration of this part of the preparation for the project is finished and I feel so good about it. I hope you also had enjoyed following this journey of mine. Thanks for all your support throughout this project.

Now, I will be organizing my maps and notes to make a new map that is more clear and easier to follow. I will be also starting to build the tool kits for the experiment. I will be getting ready for all the tools that I will be needing during the experiment. I have about 3 more weeks before it all begin!!! I am so excited!!!

Here is some of things that I marked on my map today: