Believe in Humanity

A Canadian, Cameroonian and a Romanian are in an ice cream shop... sounds like a bar joke that takes place in an ice cream shop. However small nor casual such encounter might be, it has a profound implications in the direction the world is moving and what is fast becoming the  normal (people of diverse backgrounds interacting and settling in countries not their country of birth).

Whatever the circumstances, historical forces, or personal motivations that made us three individuals find ourselves in the beautiful island of Key West-FL, having a friendly conversation, says a lot about humanity.

Steve left Vancouver Island-Canada and has been traveling for eight months now . We met in Boston-Massachusetts at a Birth of Baha’u’llah celebration (special holy day for Bahais ).

He arrived in Key West Wednesday afternoon and in the evening we met for a walk  around Mallory Square to check out some of the performers for sunset celebration with no spectacular sunset, boardwalk on sunset key, and before making the walk up Duval to the beach we stopped for some delicious ice cream, and that is where we met the lovely young lady from Romania. In no time we stroke a conversation about the weather, life in paradise (Key West), to lives of travelers and immigrants.

We were at  awe appreciating the fact that the three of us from such far corners of the earth find ourselves in Key West enjoying conversation and ice cream. Not only did we represent diverse backgrounds in terms of countries but representing three continents as well; Africa, the Americas and Europe.

It was a sweater or light jacket wearing evening, cold by Key West standards, clouds covered  50 degrees weather with a light breeze, but the Canadian was loving it.

At the beach watching the lights of boats far off  from the Atlantic shores, Steve shared some stories about his travels and adventures of the past eight months, his renewed belief in humanity and an ever increasing faith in God.

We contemplated on this irony travelers and nomads encounter: people of various backgrounds, occupations, class, religion and upbringing who time and time again go beyond the call of duty to welcome, care for and love complete strangers are the same ones who when saying goodbye warn you by saying “be careful out there, its dangerous”

We  made it to Grateful guitar for a Wednesday  Bluegrass jam session.

It was such a wonderful jam session, and by the end of it Steve made new friends, an engaged young couple from Kansas.

I rode the bike home happy and content with the beat of the bluegrass song Gold rush.

Another lovely time for this 21st century nomad in Paradise.

Here Comes 2014

All over the world people celebrate in various fashions to usher in the new Gregorian year, whether it's plunging into frigid waters, praying at temples, watching spectacular fireworks, or a beach party of unequaled proportions. There are symbolic countdown drops that accompany such celebrations across many cities in the United States, there is the famous ball drop in New York City, fleur-de-lis in New Orleans and the peach drop in Atlanta-GA.

In Key West-FL it is  done by watching the red shoe drop or the conch shell drop. Inaugurated this year to be an annual drop is the giant cigar drop at El Meson de Pepe, and that is where I went to dance my way into 2014.

It was around 7 pm when I did walk on Duval and it was already teeming with people, drinking, loud, and with the help of live music waiting for the countdown drop whether its the red shoe drop at Bourbon Street Pub or conch shell drop at Sloppy Joes.

Went home for rest, caught up on some TV series and waited till 11 pm to make my way to El Meson de Pepe where I knew there would be Latin music from Salsa to Bachata, and it was going to be quiet according to Key West partying standards. I took the back streets to avoid the chaos on Duval. When  I arrived the musicians were playing hard, the people were dancing and having a good time. I met a friend whom we became acquainted at Virgilios’ Thursday Latin music night.  She introduced me to her daughter and his boyfriend and a few of her friends.

We wasted no time to get into the groove, we danced until it was 11:59 pm, the lead singer of the band led the countdown and when it struck midnight the giant cigar dropped, everyone shouted as loud as they could Happy New Year!!!! hugging, taking photos and dancing.

Stayed with the group until 2 am when I decided to venture into Duval again. This time the streets was less crowded, but littered with confetti, plastic cups and broken bottles. A heavy police presence patrolling the streets, random people coming over giving me high-five saying Happy New Year, others would give a nod or a shout out from across the street.

Walked into Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville where a rock band was playing. Stood and listened to them. A young man who was totally wasted, was  arms length slowly staggering up and down the dance floor. When the band was done for the morning, I went into the street taking photos of the party aftermath and looking for a place I could eat, hungry from all that dancing. Luckily there was a pizza place open. Got two slices of pizza to go, made it home, where I sat down staring at my computer and eating pizza.

Here comes 2014 for this 21st century nomad.