The "Faces Of Strangers: #49" Story

Anderson

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting on a beach chair talking with 17-year-old Anderson whom I just bought two hand-made bracelets from for my two granddaughters.  For the past two weeks I have watched this young man who wears white and gray shorts and a white shirt with white visor walk the shoreline of Cable Beach near the town of Nassau trying to sell his hand-woven bracelets to tourists.  Most don’t even look his way or acknowledge him as he walks past their beach chairs.  On the day before Carol and I were slated to leave this beautiful island in the Bahamas, I told her I was going to buy two of his bracelets for our granddaughters.  Grabbed my wallet and phone and headed toward the water.  Just as I reached the water I met him and told him I would like two of his bracelets if he would sit and talk with me before I bought them.  Wasn’t long before we were sitting on a beach chair talking about his life on the island.  He had just finished high school a few months before and can now spend all his time walking the beach trying to sell the bracelets that his mother makes at their home in the middle of the island.  I asked him how he gets to the beach and he said, “Bus #10 drops me off right across the street from the beach. 

Get here at 10 am and walk the beach selling bracelets until I go home at 4 pm.”  He has been walking this beach for close to four years now, but since graduating he will have more time to try and sell his bracelets. Days are hot on this island with summer temperatures creeping near the century mark on many days.  The sand is beautiful, but hard to walk since it isn’t very firm along the water where he must walk so as not to draw the ire of the resorts along the beach.  He lives with his mother who not only makes the bracelets but makes peanut brittle that she sells from their home.  Life for many on this island is tough and tourism is the major business for those who have very little other skills.  Nonetheless, I found Anderson to be a very courteous young man with a smile that lights not only his face, but all around him.  A fantastic ambassador for the island known as New Providence in the Bahamas.  And, my granddaughters will love the bracelets that I have bought from him.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.