trash bag umma…(cont. of 10/27)

 

defintion:

umma:  means mom or mother in korean. pronounced um’ma or umm-mah. 

[almost 4 o'clock in the morning and getting ready to leave the parking lot]

it’s freezing cold and i’ve been tossing and turning all night because i failed to bring a blanket or a piece of cardboard.  eddie told me to bring a piece of cardboard earlier in the day if i was to come out, but i didn’t think i needed one…i was wrong.  the cardboard not only provides cushion for your body but it also works as somewhat of an insulator, a median between your body and the cold concrete.  at one point in the night i brought my arms into my hoody sweatshirt and buried my hands into my armpits.  i did this because i remember seeing a narrative movie when i was in middle school of a man and his dog who get lost in the wilderness when it was snowing.  unfortunately, the man dies of hyperthermia but the dog runs home.  if anyone knows the name of this movie please let me know?  besides being cold, it was rather a pleasant and peaceful rest; it was absolutely quiet.  around 3:30 i was woken to the shuffling of feet and cardboard.  it’s still dark but i could see the silhouette of figures walking down the ramp.  they would disappear for a few minutes and then come back to the area where their things were.  it seemed odd because there were more than one person getting up and going down this ramp, it was clock work.  after rubbing my eyes then beating my legs to get feeling back i noticed eunjin walking back from where everyone seemed to be…down the ramp.  he walked over to me and asked if i was ready to go because at 4 o’clock everyone must get up for security does a walk through before the morning crowd.  if i’m not mistaken, i believe i whispered to him “what’s down there?” (like he just came back from the moon) even before i could answer his suggestion.  it turned out that down this dark and mysterious ramp was a fence where everyone went to ‘take care of business’ (rich advised him earlier).  next, we gathered our things and tip-toed our way out of the parking lot for their were others who were still sleeping.  we decided to go towards the underground marta station to catch a train and head back to campus.  the walk was quiet and we didn’t talk much headed towards the station.  i think we didn’t talk because both of us were trying to gather our thoughts but the cold weather and waking up at 3:30 in the morning didn’t help.  i remember thinking how nice it was in downtown atlanta but also how different it seemed from the way i remember it.  i’ve never seen this city so quiet and lifeless. no honking horns, no one walking around on the sidewalks, no talking or laughter, no one on cellphones, no smell of cigarette smoke, and the only sound at this time was the sound of chirping from the crosswalk (pedestrian) signs.  being the law abiding citizens we are we stopped at the corners until the white l.e.d. lights made a shape of a person walking, popped up on the sign.  not a car in sight but we stood on the corners waiting for the light to change and the chirping to begin…alright, we did it for the first few corners to make sure there were no hidden 5 0′s (aka police) to give us jaywalking tickets.  then being the southern korean rebels we are we jumped from one corner to the next ‘without looking both ways’, ‘left, right, left, then cross’…my apologies to my middle school bus driver, ms. wanda, for not following bus safety rules (in crossing the street) as we should but as cedric the entertainer would say it, “i’m a grown @*$ man!” 

once the marta station became visible i could tell our pace became faster, a little more step to our walk.  we arrived in the front of the station to be confronted with the word ‘closed’.  ahhhh, the station didn’t open for another hour and i said with bad morning breath ”now what do we do?” and without a second of hesitation eunjin responded with “let’s find a mcdonald’s!”  you don’t understand how happy i was to hear the name “mcdonald’s”.  i wanted to grab eunjin’s arm and throw it up and say “who’s the big winner?”, “who’s the big winner?”, “you’re the big winner eunjin!” (line from the movie swingers)…brilliant! (say it like the guinness commercials).  long story short we walked around downtown, underground area, and found a mcdonald’s and you could probably guess what the outcome was…’closed’.  i’m use to seeing the word ‘closed’ late at night but it came to reality that i’m just as frustrated in the morning.  it brought us back to the dreaded question again “what do we do now?”  after a few tugs on the door and ears on the glass, to try and hear if there was some movement, we decided to walk around underground until the station opened.  during this somewhat frustrating walk we discussed how we felt about our experience.  we were all smiles and laughed most of the time but there were other times when we were speechless.  it was good to have my brother eunjin with me because as time got closer to seeing the sun rise we noticed more and more people out on the streets.  seeing people seeing us and not looking too friendly, maybe they disliked being up early as well.  i remember walking in the middle of underground where the streets are made of brick.  if you are familiar with underground it would be the street adjacent to the underground police station.  well, as we were laughing about something, while turning the corner, and we saw someone who seized all words.  nearly 30 feet away from us was someone who caught my eyes as well as clench my heart.  i did almost a double take because i didn’t want to see what i thought i saw the first time.  we saw an older asian, she looked korean, woman dressed in what appeared to be a shiny black trash bag.  as we approached her she held out her frail and wrinkled hand and said “one dolla…can i have one dolla…i need one dolla”.  before the trip, eunjin and i made sure not to bring any money for we thought that it would be best.  i took one glance at her and i wished i had some money to give her.  for some reason i’ve never seen an asian homeless person who was either male or female in the states.  i never expected to see a asian woman and it tore me apart to see her wearing a trash bag.  she looked to have clothes on under the trash bag and i didn’t know the reason for her to be wearing it…it wasn’t raining.  we told her that we didn’t have any money to give her but it did not stop her from asking.  eventually we had to shake our heads from side to side to gesture to her that we didn’t have it just in case she did not speak english.  dejected, she dropped her hand to her side turned and walked away to the sound of her arms sliding against the glossy trash bag.  we just stood there watching her walk away from us.  i was thinking, “why is she out here?  it’s dangerous for a woman to be on the streets by herself, doesn’t she have family?  where is her husband or children? isn’t anyone looking for her?”  as we slowly walked off it was silent again and all i could think about was her pleading with us to give her just one dollar.  her face reminded me of my ‘umma’ and i wanted someone to run to her and throw their arms around her while kissing her cheeks saying, “umma, you’re okay let’s get you back home now!” or “umma where have you been? i have been looking everywhere for you,” but non of this happened.  as we turned another corner eunjin stopped walking and said, “i’m gonna give her my jacket…it’s cold and we gotta give her something.”  i nodded my head to agree and we quickly walked to find her.  once we turned the corner we saw her squatting down in the middle of the street.  she was squatting ‘asian style’ like how our mothers’ squat when making some ‘kimchee’, that type of squat-sit.  as eunjin walked towards her i stood back waiting for her to receive the jacket with delight.  as soon as he was next to her he put his arm out, holding the jacket, and said “would you like my jacket?”  surprisingly she did not answer eunjin and to make things even more confusing i don’t even think she was paying attention to him.  i thought this was odd and it may be possible that she didn’t hear him but as eunjin offered his jacket once again i saw something eunjin could not.  i wanted to yell to eunjin to share with him what was going on but he was too involved.  suddenly she began yelling “no!” and i think “go!”  i was stunned by the projection of her voice as was eunjin.  what i wanted to tell eunjin was that she was in the process of urinating because i saw a stream of liquid coming from the direction of this crouched ‘umma’ covered by a trash bag.  moments later eunjin saw what i did and understood why she wanted for him to leave.  the situation we were in got very awkward for we didn’t know how to act nor did we know what to say.  as eunjin walked towards me she began to yell “no touchy!” “no touchy!” and it caught both of us off guard.  he paused in stance, looked over at her to figure out what was making her so distraught.  i didn’t know why she would be yelling this but as i looked over to where eunjin was i saw a man walking by looking over at this woman.  this ‘walking man’ seemed a bit startled from the tone of her voice.  it turns out that the belongings, a few bags, of this woman was in the vicinity of eunjin and the ‘walking man’ and she thought that one of them would grab them.  eunjin stood there until she got up and rushed over to her things.  then in a matter of a few seconds she vanished into the mist of the dark early morning.  as we walked again towards the marta station and before i turned the corner i look back one last time to see if ‘umma’ was there.  the only thing left was the stream of urine which marked the brick street adjacent to the underground police station.  we were curious to know why she chose that location to do her business instead of going to a private area, within bushes or behind a building.  thinking about it - maybe she chose this spot because it was the safest, possibly because she recognized the situation and environment she was in.  it was safer to be in the open street, under lights, adjacent from the police station.  we wondered if she always kept the black plastic trash bag on or if it was just to hide herself from the world during these private moments.  could the trash bag be to cover herself from being embarrassed or ashamed? or could this be consistent to the slogan most of us are familiar with “desperate times calls for drastic measures?” 

how do you feel about the homeless?  do you feel more compassionate when you see someone who is of your own race or ethnicity?  we are all use to seeing black and white homeless ‘men’ (in the u.s) but how do you feel when you encounter a woman or a child?  should you feel any differently?  why do we choose not to help the poor and needy?  why do we think and hold on to the thoughts this world has taught us about the poor?  why are we so quick to judge?  who is our Jesus and what did He do?  was He not with the poor, prostitutes, orphans, and tax collectors?  who’s ‘umma’ is she?  who’s sister is she?  who’s daughter is she?  who’s wife is she?  let me tell you who she is………………she ’is’ (say this word loud) a child of God!

who are we?

 

 Luke 15: 11-32

Hebrews 13: 2

 

 

 

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