Same song different verse.

Every Thursday is Beach Day in the world of Mission Discovery. Today we were at Rosarito Beach in Baja Mexico. Caleb, Cam, Eric, and I were enjoing watching the ocean, chatting, reading books...now, you get to see a unique stuff in Mexico, especially in the tourist town of Rosarito. Five year olds are haggling you to make deal or buy their Chicle, old women are begging for money, animals performing stunts, the vendors try to catch you with their slogans like:

"Good price for you pretty lady."
"Almost free."
And our personal favorite: "You speak English? Let's talk about it."

There is no shortage of the interesting people interactions that you can have, but this one was the strangest. Keep in mind, as you are on the beach someone comes up to you once a minute wanting you to buy there treasures...but this man was different. He was probably sixty years old, had one tooth, and carried a wrapped bottle of 100 proof something and a branch of leaves. He comes up to us, takes a swig, and just stars blowing on his leaf producing the most gut wrenching sound imaginable...like fingernails on a chalkboard or a high pitched dog yelping for help. He played it like it was a harmonica. We thought, this is novel, he is going to irritate us into giving him money...that would be a first.

In between his leaf blowing her would speak to us about his life (in Spanish of course) and then take a swig of the drink and play more...typically people want money or food in return...but I really think he was just telling his story and enjoying his small stage. We picked up about every 1/10 words in his monolgue. As I write my heart does break for him...but at the moment I was so irritated. I though I was going to die of annoyance and everytime he played a leaf I wanted to poke my eardrums out...

I suppose the point is that God wanted me to receive something from this man...perhaps it was patience or understanding or compassion or love....but all I wanted to do was read my book. Thankfully, Cam gave him his undivided attention and enjoyed the experience. Just like all the other vendors, he was selling something, maybe it was his story...but it seemed all he wanted was time.
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