The other day Resa and I were in a gelato shop. We sat down and started eating when a man came up to us and handed each of us a pink piece of paper and then walked away. Resa and I looked at each other and at the pink paper we held in our hands.  Since the message was written only in Italian words, we asked the lady that worked in the gelato shop what the man wanted.  She told us he wanted money. I put the pink paper in my purse and Resa folded hers up and put it in her pocket.

Literally, two minutes later the man came back and started speaking to us in Italian. The woman behind the gelato counter said he wanted us to donate money to him and he wanted the papers back. So we gave him back our pink papers. He got mad at Resa for folding up the piece of paper and then he stormed off.

Nothing, and I mean nothing like this has ever happened to me where I live. I live about thirty minutes from Los Angeles, so of course I’ve seen people begging for money. But never has anyone come up to me and handed me a piece of paper asking for money.  I was telling one of my professors what I had encountered, and she said that it had happened to her in Chicago. People pass out papers for example at bus stops or train stations where there are a lot of people. They pass out papers for numerous reasons, but usually asking for money because they are out of work, deaf, or homeless.

It’s just a way for people to get by.