As I kept exploring the different rooms the scenario was pretty much the same: floors covered in shit, piles of beer cans, and boxes that once contained pills. There's this certain pill people consume to get high and later end up uncontrollably having to poop on spot, but I never remember the name.
Writings on the wall were a testament of the sensibility of the souls that had descended into this state of the mind where it doesn't matter to spend your time in piles of feces, as long as you had a moment in life when you didn't have to carry the weight of modern slavery. Phrases like: "God, scream louder because I can't hear you", or "all I want is Love", told me of their pain.
I had a conversation with a guy on the streets who told me something very true: "there's little for us who don't want to play the game of society but also don't want to be constantly surviving the harshness of the streets. You either go for the enslaving life of paying a car, a house, and social security at the expense of most of your time and energy, or you're out here with us. There's just no middle ground'.
If I have a bit of a middle ground it's because I was privileged to be raised in an intellectual family and have many tools at my disposal. I have this blog, music, I know English, how to work the land, how to talk to thugs and gentlemen alike. I also know how to meditate and abstract myself from the pain of this world so I don't need the drugs to do it for me. But what happens to those who didn't have the chances to develop a lot of skills? Those who's only life has been the struggles of the material world, which are especially hard when you're born on the lower spectrum of the socioeconomic scale? That's why I avoid playing the "enlightened" role and telling them what they should do, as I've seen may highborns doing. I listen and learn, for they have experienced a life of which I'm completely ignorant of.
After exploring a bit I returned to the room where we had slept and Ayun was in the process of waking up. He was happy because important people for him had visited in his dreams.
While he still put his mind in order I went out to see if I could find proper firewood to light a fire and dry my clothes and tent. I had to look a lot, and found the occasional hanging branch from a tree, as well as some pallets that were under other things keeping them protected. Ayun wanted to go and start selling his crafts early but I really wanted to dry out. He didn't approve the fire much but in the end said he'd stay with me to dry out and eat something warm, though he went to buy some cigars first.
I should have gone with him to work, I should have ignored my wet feet. I guess I wasn't thinking clearly because of the cold, you never should light fires in abandoned houses. But of course, this as all was clear to me only after the following events.
To be continued...