The 1R, East Oakland

The 1R bus from Berkeley, CA to deep East Oakland is always an interesting ride. My quote of the day last week from a guy sitting in the back of the bus: "The ugly prostitutes make mo' money than the pretty ones cuz the johns think the pretty ones is cops." Yes, everyday I see the prostitutes on the corner as I head to work.

Taxi driver from Guatemala City to El Quiche

There were no buses on the road from Guatemala to Quiche when I arrived at the airport so I splurged and took a taxi. It meant that I wasn't sitting in my usual spot staring out the window on a bus but started off in the back of a cab. After a few moments, when we had confirmed that there were no buses and haggled a little over the price, the driver pulled over so I could get in the front. What followed was a 2.5 hour conversation on a wide range of topics including a deepening of my understanding on how taxi's work in Guatemala and the beginning of my thought process on "Why we do what we do"...

Woman selling Burritos at the Taco Truck 35th Ave

"Where did you learn Spanish?" she asked me. "Guatemala," I said. "Oh, I would have guessed South America, maybe Paraguay or Uruguay from your accent," she said...Of course this entire conversation was in Spanish. No one has ever pegged South America on me and one of the Guay's?

Man with 3 kids at the Burrito stand on 35th

"Wow, you speak Spanish," he said to me as I placed my order for a burrito de pollo. He had a quarter inch scar right below his left eye and was surrounded by three under 8 kids. He told me how the kids were his but not by his wife, how they lived in Sacramento and had never had tacos like the ones they were scarfing down at the moment. They were waiting for the bus. I chatted with him for a few minutes before grabbing my burrito and heading off to work.

Chattin with E-40's younger brother

So, if you don't know who E-40 is, I suggest googling him but I definitely was not expecting to chat with his younger brother the other day. But that's Oakland for ya. He was on his way to get on a plane to go to NY to do a benefit concert for Haiti. The conversation had so many pieces...

Cab Driver, Dublin, Ireland

(More posts to come ASAP, we just returned from Ireland and Paris) It was raining cats and dogs. We had just arrived from a 2.5 hour bus ride from Belfast to Dublin. Upon our arrival in Dublin we had instructions to call our friends who lived there but we couldn't reach them and we found out upon arrival that the text message we had sent prior to leaving Belfast had not arrived until a few minutes before our bus arrived. We hopped in a taxi cab and gave him our address. His thick Irish accent popped out as we tried to figure out how to contact our friends before arriving at their house. "Well, I'll just give 'em a ring," he piped in. "Hey, this is Danny. I've got your two friends here and we are about at your place," he left them a message. Just goes to show the hospitality of the Irish.

On the bus in Oakland

Interesting scenario. I was on the bus and one man was talking about just getting out of jail and how if the police had known all of what he did he would have been in jail for life. Then four hours later I was back on the bus headed home and the bus driver was having a conversation with a guy who was talking about "cappin" other folks who showed up with a gun against him.