Andrea at the 99 cent shop

This afternoon, as I left the 99 cent shop where I'd gone to buy bags of cheap peppers for roasting, I gave a dollar donation to a man who was standing in front of the shop dressed in something that looked like a white navy uniform.

He was holding a donation tin and as I left the shop he said to me- ''Where your bicycle?'

'Over there,' I told him, realising I still had my cycle helmet on.

I had seen other men dressed exactly as this man at the entrances of other supermarkets, holding out tins, so after I unlocked my bicycle I walked back to the man and said- 'What are you collecting for?'

'Homeless,' said the man.

'And drug addicts,' I said to him because from close up I could read on his tin that he was collecting for a charity that helped homeless people and drug addicts.

'Yes. Homeless...it's....it's a...big problem in....all of USA,' he told me in very broken English.

'Yes, I agree,' I said, 'I think it's disgusting that people are homeless in this country, in this very rich country,'

Then, looking at his can I saw, among others, the words 'brotherhood' and 'Jesus' and I said to him, 'Oh, it's a religious charity,'

'Yes,' he said, 'we give to food, and homeless and so, it good for...'

Then he started pointing to his head and chest and smiling.

'Good for the...heart and mind?' I asked him.

He told me yes, it was good for the heart and mind.

'Okay,' I said, putting a dollar in his tin, 'I believe you,'

Then the man said 'God bless' and smiled at me.

I had started to walk off so my back was to him but I heard when he called out- 'Your name?'

So I turned and walked back toward him, told him my name and held out my hand to him.

'Andrea,' he said holding out his hand to me.

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Look at my shop and get a print. It'll make your life so much better.