Sami and the Homeless Bill of Rights

Sami is from the island of Nevis, in the Caribbean. Currently he's unhoused and living in Portland, and he has been volunteering as a dishwasher at Sisters of the Road since 2010. He says he started sleeping outside as a child in Nevis, and he has camping skills, good health, and good friends, so he considers himself wealthy and loves his life. "I'm young enough and healthy enough that I can still enjoy living with this kind of freedom," he told me. "I worked very hard for some years, till I started to lose my health and happiness. So here, I work a little, I help other people a little, and life is in balance for me. I know some people have a much harder time. Health is everything, safety is everything. Here I'm healthy, and nobody harasses me, so for me it's pretty good. For others, not so good."

Today we had an all-day meeting to work on the Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign for Oregon. I'm continuing to work for the campaign by documenting unhoused people's stories. Sami and I sat together for a delicious lunch donated by a Cuban restaurant. I asked Sami about Nevis.

"Oh, Nevis is a great place. We don't have guns there, so there's hardly any violence. The weather is perfect, so people don't get sick till they're old. We have very good schools, so everyone is literate. You can really live off the land--everybody has a little garden, but you can pick mangoes off the trees, you can catch fish. We have about fifty different kinds of mangoes, every day there's another kind of mango ripening. Then there are guavas, beautiful food, healthy food that makes you feel good. Nobody is too fat, nobody is too skinny."

So I asked him, "Why did you leave? Don't you want to go back?"

"There are people I miss, but I don't want to go back, not yet. I guess I have the wander-lust," he explained. "Even as a small child, as soon as I read books about other parts of the world, I wanted to go there. I'm still that way, and I have good friends here. I'm happy here. It's surprising to me, being here. I know what to expect there, because it's my culture. But here, I am always surprised. I like that. It keeps me thinking, keeps me young. Maybe when I get old, I'll go back."