Foreigner living on the streets

[Kuya M]

1 hour ago, Jack Peterson said:

Things could always be worse       

[Jollygoodfellow]

Just a follow up on this foreigner living on the street. He did disappear for awhile but been back for a month I guess. Looking bit worse for wear. Anyway my GF and I put together some lunch and a few things for him and walked over to give it not knowing what his reaction would be. He was asleep on the bench and I was busy today so did not want to come back later. I said hello twice and he woke up and slowly rose up to a sitting position. Obviously sleeping on a hard surface is causing some pain. Anyway I said I would like to offer you some food if thats OK. He said Oh thank you very much mate. Not sure if he is Aussie. We wished him a merry Christmas and he did the same and I shook his hand. He was shaking a bit, not sure if from hunger or nerves. I said I might come and talk to you tomorrow and he thanked again and said god bless and we left.

So he seemed a nice enough guy down on his luck for whatever reason.

Put in a couple of bananas after picture taken.

[BrettGC]

Mate, you did a good thing and it seems it was appreciated as well.  Some of you know my background as a social worker after I left the navy working for homeless vets and from where I'm sitting people don't choose to live on the streets but there they are, making you feel uncomfortable and making excuses not to help them.  There, but for the grace of god, go I.  No one is immune to gravity.  Mental illness is not a choice but we send our sons to war and expect that not to happen.  80% of homeless people in Australia are mentally ill veterans or indigenous first peoples (don't get me started on that). There's been 200 Australians die in Afghanistan and Iraq, there's been 800 that have committed suicide since they returned.  Mental illness it not a choice, it's as deadly as a cancer diagnosis.  Tom's mate may not have served, but that doesn't matter, he's in a bad situation and that tiny slice of humanity that Tom showed may have saved a life.  

I have a black dog.  I hate him and love him.  I have an angry midget that gets it, she saved my life.  

Are you ok?

[fillipino_wannabe]

Could happen to anyone, I went absolutely mental 5 years ago and got diagnosed bipolar. Just 4-5 weeks of being an absolute lunatic was enough to mess my business up and waste a lot of money. Banned on Amazon & Ebay, website deindexed from Google. Luckily I had a good family and managed to rebuild my business but a lot of people don't have such a good safety net.
I never used to believe how bad mental health problems can be before it happened to myself. I'd honestly rather chop my leg off than have another month of that lol.

[bastonjock]

3 hours ago, BrettGC said:

Mate, you did a good thing and it seems it was appreciated as well.  Some of you know my background as a social worker after I left the navy working for homeless vets and from where I'm sitting people don't choose to live on the streets but there they are, making you feel uncomfortable and making excuses not to help them.  There, but for the grace of god, go I.  No one is immune to gravity.  Mental illness is not a choice but we send our sons to war and expect that not to happen.  80% of homeless people in Australia are mentally ill veterans or indigenous first peoples (don't get me started on that). There's been 200 Australians die in Afghanistan and Iraq, there's been 800 that have committed suicide since they returned.  Mental illness it not a choice, it's as deadly as a cancer diagnosis.  Tom's mate may not have served, but that doesn't matter, he's in a bad situation and that tiny slice of humanity that Tom showed may have saved a life.  

I have a black dog.  I hate him and love him.  I have an angry midget that gets it, she saved my life.  

Are you ok?

I e got some knowledge about mental illness , I have a close friend who suffers from PTSD,  with  my job I got to a house ( I'm the electrician) , it's a half way place for people suffering from a variety of problems  , I had a smoke outside and got talking to one guy who suffers very badly from PTSD,  I was scared I'd say the wrong thing , but just talking to him seemed to lift his spirits .

I am a recovered alcoholic , been sober for 24 years , not a drop . I was offered a position at a very exclusive and expensive world renowned rehab , I could have got qualified and ended up charging mega bucks to the rich and famous , but I just could not bring myself to charge money for a program that was given freely to me , I still. Get the phone calls and go an help suffering alcoholics , if it's a dangerous situation ,we go as a pair , once had to disarm a guy with an axe , that was not fun .

I have seen and witnessed those in park benches recover from alcoholism,  we gets vets coming in and do what we can to help

[Jollygoodfellow]

4 hours ago, BrettGC said:

Mental illness is not a choice but we send our sons to war and expect that not to happen.  80% of homeless people in Australia are mentally ill veterans or indigenous first peoples (don't get me started on that). There's been 200 Australians die in Afghanistan and Iraq, there's been 800 that have committed suicide since they returned.  Mental illness it not a choice, it's as deadly as a cancer diagnosis.  Tom's mate may not have served, but that doesn't matter, he's in a bad situation and that tiny slice of humanity that Tom showed may have saved a life.  

At this stage I do not know his situation but I do now know he is approachable so I will follow up and see what can be done if he wants something done. I already talked to my GF about these mattrest she has stored here, only fairly thin but better than a hard bench. Will see how things are after l talk to him again.

Funny thing the other night I was in my watering hole and a Filipina just a tad drunk did not have enough money to pay her full bill. This is a long story but l paid the P230 needed and she was not short of money normally except she did not have her card with her and could not leave without paying. I think I made a friend and I told my GF and she said why did you do that, my answer was that I hope if I was in that situation someone would help me.

Now can anyone lend me 50 peso till next week,, please please 

[Arizona Kid]

17 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

At this stage I do not know his situation but I do now know he is approachable so I will follow up and see what can be done if he wants something done. I already talked to my GF about these mattrest she has stored here, only fairly thin but better than a hard bench. Will see how things are after l talk to him again.

Funny thing the other night I was in my watering hole and a Filipina just a tad drunk did not have enough money to pay her full bill. This is a long story but l paid the P230 needed and she was not short of money normally except she did not have her card with her and could not leave without paying. I think I made a friend and I told my GF and she said why did you do that, my answer was that I hope if I was in that situation someone would help me.

Now can anyone lend me 50 peso till next week,, please please 

My GF has a lending business..she can give you 50 for 60. Best I can do. 

[TimL]

On 12/25/2018 at 6:07 PM, Jollygoodfellow said:

Just a follow up on this foreigner living on the street. He did disappear for awhile but been back for a month I guess. Looking bit worse for wear. Anyway my GF and I put together some lunch and a few things for him and walked over to give it not knowing what his reaction would be. He was asleep on the bench and I was busy today so did not want to come back later. I said hello twice and he woke up and slowly rose up to a sitting position. Obviously sleeping on a hard surface is causing some pain. Anyway I said I would like to offer you some food if thats OK. He said Oh thank you very much mate. Not sure if he is Aussie. We wished him a merry Christmas and he did the same and I shook his hand. He was shaking a bit, not sure if from hunger or nerves. I said I might come and talk to you tomorrow and he thanked again and said god bless and we left.

So he seemed a nice enough guy down on his luck for whatever reason.

Put in a couple of bananas after picture taken.

That was really nice of you JGF. As I offered earlier in this thread, holler if you need to band some people together to get the guy on his feet. 

In the blink of an eye, any of us could be in the same situation.

[Roadhawg]

Not to sound flippant but bring him a McDonalds meal and ask if he's hungry.  Go from there.

[Gratefuled]

Yesterday,

I saw a man who wasn't there.

I saw him there again today.

I wish that he would go away.