Sometimes things aren't what the appear to be; but how do you figure out what they really are?

Yesterday in Kingstown my friend Aloma and I were trying to 'flag down' a young lady, then there was this voice "Excuse me". I turned to look and I come face to face with this guy dressed in a torn shirt, carrying two bags and looking very tired. He continued, "May I have a dollar to buy something to eat please, I am very hungry".  I was shocked by his good manners, perfect diction,  and superb English usage. I gave him a little more than he asked for, usually I would take the person somewhere and buy them something to eat but he seemed different, so I handed over the money.

Then things changed...

He turns to my friend Aloma, addresses her by name asked if she still worked at **** and then began a story that explained how he and his family are being tormented. This must be the reason for his shabby clothes, I thought.

He continued his story, and listed his tormentors at this point it took every ounce of me to 'hold back the laugh'.

After it was all over I laughed like crazy I really did.

We soon related the story to a group of ladies and one of them explained that she knew the guy and that he went away to study and came back home not all to right.

Well that stayed on my mind for the rest of the day and I began to feel badly for not being a bit more sympathetic earlier. Maybe drug abuse has him the way he is, maybe the story he tells now contains a bit of what happened to him in this foreign land he lived in...

Who knows?!

They say life is like a box of chocolate you never know what you are getting until you open it up; I guess people are like that too.