Encounters

Conversations With Strangers

Sandro & Ana, BY LOGAN BIK AND DANNY MENDEZ

Having no personal belongings due to city clean-ups, Ana expressed her frustrations with coming to The United States. She mentioned the living conditions in the U.S. are worse than the ones in her homeland, El Salvador. Having come to the states over 20 years ago, the couple has been struggling to find permanent housing since the shelters don’t let them stay together.

Sandro, works in construction but lacks consistent cash flow since there is no work to be done at the moment.He knew 42 people who have died on the streets. He thinks most of the deaths are from alcohol.

INDU, BY ALYSSA DURANT AND BARAA ALKASSIR

We learned a lot about Indu upon encountering her at the bus stop; she was born and raised in northern India, and her name has a hindi origin meaning ‘moon.’ She gets dialysis treatment every other day, and won’t date again after a happy marriage with her late husband. She displayed an inviting aura, and was eager to share her positive take on life through the hardships of aging.

Justin, By Wiam dahbi and candice romero

During the major part of the conversation with him, he kept his head down. He did tell us at first that he was very shy, but it also looked like he was ashamed of most of the thing he was telling us.