lunch in the city

Last week, I invited a homeless man to eat lunch with me.

I was at the train station in our city. Across from the station is an array of fast food restaurants (some western, but mostly Asian). I went to Burger King because they have diet coke :) As I was sitting in the restaurant, a homeless man sat down near me. From past experience, I knew he was about to ask me for money. Sure enough within a minute, he whispered (I'll translate), "Lady, Lady, you give me money, I'm hungry."

I'm not sure what to do in these situations. I want to show love to the poor and needy, but I hesitate to just give money. For some reason, it feels cold to me to only give money.

I decided to buy him lunch and sit with him. My language is not great, so this was really scary.

I went up to the counter and grabbed the picture menu. This menu is made for all the foreigners (that's you) who come to EA and can't speak the language. It also comes in handy for me to show to my new friend and have him point to what he would like to eat for lunch.

He wanted a spicy chicken sandwich.... I should have guessed.... They love their spicy chicken here.

After I sweet-talked the manager into not kicking my friend out of the restaurant, we sat down to eat lunch together. Conversation was awkward, to say the least. We talked about where we're from, our ages, our families, and other very basic topics. I tried to dominate the conversation because I didn't understand most of the words in the questions he'd ask.

The lunch was short. It was uncomfortable. But, at the same time, it was great. I had nothing to fear. In fact, I'd do it again :)