While in the Richmond area of Vancouver, we found ourselves at this strange shopping centre, Lansdowne Mall, that was entirely Chinese, much like Richmond itself.
Chinese stores, Chinese grocery, Chinese medical and herbs; the surroundings were surreal. The only thing that tethered this mall to North America was a pizza joint in their food court, where we encountered this dude.
Sitting at a table adjacent, we began to shoot the shit with him over the demographics of the place and the fact that we were visitors here like himself, his being from Chile.
His English was excellent and our conversation evolved. Now granted, the not for profit benevolentbjs project is generally about helping those on the periphery of society, but sometimes, well, heck, I’m only human.
I ended up pitching this straight dude that was only by happenstance I encountered.
He thought about it for a minute and said since he was so far from home, no one back there would ever know. And besides, he said, though he’d never had a dude blow him, life was all about the “adventures in travel’.