6
i
Assume
nothing
B Y LO RRAINE DUCHALARD
- STREET R O O T S V E N D O R
magine how you may have reacted if
this had happened to you.
I
A long time ago I was at the airport
waiting for my flight to Nevada. Across the
way I noticed a kiosk selling shortbread §
cookies. I bought a box, put them in my
travel bag and searched for an available
seat so I could sit down and eat them.
Finally, I notice a seat next to a gentleman.
I reached down into my bag and pulled out
the box of cookies. As I did this I noticed
the guy watching me very intensely. He
stared hard at me and my box of cookies,
as I brought the cookies to my mouth.
Then suddenly he took a cookie from my
box and ate it!
I was more than a little surpristed at this,
I was at a loss for words. Not only did he
eat one cookie but he alternated with me.
For every one cookie I ate, he took one.
Now I am going crazy. I think, what the ’
hell?! What a crazy greedy creep. He’s got
some nerve! I start to imagine words I
might use to describe this guy and the
situation to my family and friends.
Meanwhile we both keep eating the
cookies down to the final cookie. The guy
reaches down and takes the last cookie.
But then he does something weird; he
breaks it in half and gives me half. After
the cookies are gone the man gets up and
leaves. I start thinking, “did this really
happen?”
I’m sitting in my seat dumbfounded and
still a bit hungry so I go buy another box of
cookies and go back to my seat. I begin to
open the new box of cookies when I glance
do w n into myfrag. Sitting thc*c iff m y ba g ■ ■
is my original b o x o f c o o kies still
unopened. Only then did I realize that
when I reached down earlier, I had reached
into the other man’s bag and grabbed his
box of cookies by mistake!
Now I thought different about this man.
Was he what I’d thought before or was he
generous, tolerant and kind? I had
experienced a profound paradigm shift I
was seeing things a bit differently.
Sometimes ip life we need to change our
point of view. Things may not be what they
seem. It has been said: assumptions are
the termites of relationships.
I am vendor Lorraine Duchalard please
assume nothing when it comes to me. You
may be very wrong, my friend. I sell at the
33rd and Belmont Zupan’s in the evenings
only because I go to school four days a
week in the daytime trying to earn my
associates degree. This is why you don’t
see me at times.
Thanks, Tom with Adidas,
for warming a small part
of our community!
— Matt Jackson
Street Roots vendor
s tre e t ro o ts
1
Feb 18, 2011
Loving
Portland
through
Jenni’s eyes
B Y K A ISA MCCROW
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
T enni, a petite woman with short hair and
I an endearing smile, describes her post
I selling Street Roots outside of the .
zupan’s on Belmont and 33rd as the
location for the happiest shoppers in
Pbrtland. This seems to delight her, and she
describes the area as a “super
neighborhood,” where everyone is smiling
and with beautiful children and dogs,
carrying fldwers and enjoying life. In Jenni’s
Portland, people seem to be happy, the
forests are beautiful, and there is space for
any kind of person to find peace and home.
Jenni moved here two years ago from
P H O T O B Y K A IS A M C Ç R O W
Jenni
perception. Jenni is as sure of the
impossibly large sky as she is about the
magic of the forests and mountains that
surroimd her in Portland; it is what makes
her love it here. They camped in Forest
Park for their first few months here, hiking
.in and out of the forest nearly half an hour
each day to go to work. Now they share a
space in a van that Justin purchased this
fall, but Jenni’s connection to the forest has
not lessened. She is still enthralled. “I can’t
drinking too heavily, and she was glad Justin
was there to make sure she stayed on her
Michigan with her best friend and traveling
feet Despite the help she received from
partner Justin. They had already been close
homeless services in Portland, she says ft
for years when together they decided to sell
was too much to spend all of her time
everything that they owned and venture
around that intense environment, and that
w est They say it took 5-6 months of saving
the impact on her was heavy. Getting the
money, a lot of soul-searching and one-way
van was a major step for her and Justin,
Amtrak tickets to get both of them to leave
offering them solace and privacy that was
behind the only home either of them knew
much needed to stay sane.
for Oregon.
This last September Jenni’s backpack was
even explain how it [the forest] makes me
stolen, with many of her possession,
h a r s h e r p lace to live. S h e e x p e rien cecO n o re nFeerTr’sTnSe^TFugTTourTTLead^s all'fiiiglyr“" in cluding h e r id en tificatio n , ta k e n with B
violence there and recalls getting held up at
You fall in love with it, kind of the way you
The repercqssions of this loss are one of
gun point on her birthday no less. The
fall in love with a person.”
the biggest barriers in her daily life. It’s
dangerous environment coupled with a bad
This love affair with nature is what makes impossible to even sell used books to
economy and a desire for adventure, led her Jenni want to work with plants someday.
Powell’s without an ID, and Jenni realized
and Justin through the mountains on a two-
She paints landscapes when she can get a
finding a job was nearly impossible as well.
day train trip with the few things left that
hold of painting materials and she would
Now, she’s wading through the logistics of
they owned. It was a beautiful way to travel
like to become a botanist, and can see
procuring a new birth certificate. Each step
and Jenni describes the trip as gorgeous,
herself working for the forest service or a
is time consuming and difficult, made
barring the less than inspiring scenery in
nursery. Already, those smiling Zupan’s
harder by the limited resources that she is
North Dakota. Traveling in March at the
patrons enlist her help in picking out the
already working with. Until she can get a
end of winter, the pair began to feel
picturesque bouquets that she sees them
card verifying her identity, Jenni is cut off
panicked as they approached Oregon with
carrying around all the time. She is there to
from avenues to attain employment or
the scenery around them still covered in
sell papers, but she says it is the
housing. It’s a waiting game.
snow. They began to rethink their little tent
interactions with people that really make
What Jenni does have and value in her life
and lack of winter gear, sprouting final seeds her Street Roots spot a fantastic place.
are things that cannot be stolen. She now
of doubt and cold feet after nearly half a
Although it is hard work being on your feet
has family and community in Portland, and
year of preparation. The image of arriving in all day selling papers, Jenni feels that the
she is constantly surprised and delighted by >
a city blanketed by snow, with no home dr
positive energy that she receives from
people. “There is more of a community of
possessions was nerve-wracking and scary.
people is part of what helps her to forget
homeless people here. I’ve had homeless
To their happy relief, they pulled into
the more depressing sides of homelessness.
men in rags offering me change,” she
Portland’s downtown train station to greet
The reality is that homelessness has
explains, appreciating that people with so
an unseasonably nice, 65-degree day, just
created many barriers for her. She has lived little are so willing to give. She has Street
the greeting they needed to start over in
through hard times in Michigan, and
Roots, which she has excelled a t She has
this new city.
although Portland has been an opportunity
Justin, her rock. She has the wonders of the
Quickly, they were at home. “The sky
to start over, it hasn’t all come easy. She has city, the forests and the mountains as her
looks bigger here. I know the sky is the
struggled to stay positive at times, talking
home, and a rare ability to appreciate beauty
same size anywhere you go, but it just
about how easy it is to be beaten down by
-all around her. And she has her humble
seems bigger here. I don’t know why. Do
the negative energy that she has
dreams for her future, “I’m very minimalist.
you know why?” She leans oyer to Justin
encountered from other people on the
All I want is a dog and a tiny house in the
during our conversation. Neither has an
street who have given up. She is reflective
forest She smiles and adds, “I know that is
answer, only that they are sure of this
about a period where she found herself
attainable.”
Answers to puzzles on page 16
If you’ve missed a
copy of Street Roots,
check with your local
vendor or stop by the
Street Roots office at
211 NW Davis St. Or
read up on past stories
and comments at
VENDOR W ORK ADS
Cassidy Morse: Looking for work. Will do most
anything, light and heavy. $10 an hour, four
hour minimum. Please call 503-224-5398 or
Street Roots at 503-228-5657.
Pete Marshall W. and Julie W.: Pleasant
mannered and experienced at labor. Odd jobs.
Yard work speciality. Repairing household
losses. Pay back huge debts. Leave call back
number and detailed message: 503-946-3959,
or Street Roots, 503-228-5657.
Vincent Bartlett: Laborer for hire, any type of
work — painting, yardwork, moving,
handyman, light or heavy. Honest and
dependable. Call Street Roots at 503-228-5657
and leave message for Vincent.
For just $5 a month, you can help support Portland’s only street i>
td lowtncome vendor program. Learn how to set up a n ,
safe recumng donation a t www.stmtnots.com