36, 37, 38

On Wednesday I met JB. He’s originally from Haiti but considers Boston his home. He did spend six years in Portland and yes, if you haven’t been there, put it on your list. His wife was transferred to Milwaukee and he now works IS for Harley.

We talked about disaster, relief, helplessness and doing what you can with what you have. He has extended family there and visits every couple of years. And once again Harley is a great company to work for.

On Friday I met Edjou. He looked a little surprised when I said his name - right - the first time. I absolutely love doing that. He’s from Cameroon. He came over on the US Diversity Lottery or something like that. You have to have some education, some work experience, some contacts and - it is a lottery - you have to play to win. In the year 2000 he won.

This is my America and it’s pretty much all I know. However things might have seemed to have changed and not necessarily for the better (he agrees) it is still better than where he came from. He brought up justice for instance. There is so much corruption there.

Mostly we talked about people and caring for one another. I’d love to have a coffee with him. There is so much I could learn.

On Thursday and Friday I have a chance to meet Eric B. He’s all homegrown. He works third shift at Miller-Coors on the bottling line. Not the can line.

Between the two of us and the traffic we could not really get all the arithmetic finished but suffice it to say that on a good day/shift he sees 350,000 bottles go by and that’s five semi-trailer loads of bottles. That's a lot of beer.

Better than that he’s off to load and deliver a thousand pounds of donated food to the food pantry he’s been volunteering at for the last ten years.

Ten years? Yahoo! I gave him a thanks and a pat on the back.

“Thanks,” I said, “We need you here.”

It turns out I might be of some service with his promotions.

Finding someone from somewhere else with a few minutes and a willingness to engage is wonderful.

P.S. I add the 36th & 37th countries to my international customer list with Haiti and Cameroon. Hmmm ... I just checked my list again and see that somewhere along the line I forgot to add South Africa. Amazing. 38.