17 MAR 2014 PM

Ok. Back at O'Hare. My visit went just perfect. The right amount of preparation, luck and timing. Oh, and yeah the site was a block from the subway so I got to take the train into O'Hare, which is $3 instead of a $50 cab ride. Sure, traveling in a suite with a nice leather duffel bag, in the ghetto could be labeled as unwise. Or as my dad would call it "giving papaya", whatever that means.

This may sound like the beggining of a lame joke, but the coordinator, is Syrian, his back up is Iraqi and the  Principal Investigator is a straight up Jew, with the accent and everything. The Coordinator, Dr. Matar Matar was incredibly nice. We had to work in unconfortably close quarters, the thermostat broken with a pouring a river of heat right above my head. I was pouring sweating within 60 seconds. 

Oh, the AC was also on, on full blast, and the windows were open. Yeah, its a county hospital, from 1678 or whenever they thought that the heat and A/C should work at the same time was a good idea.  Super run down, I heard a dope and hooker deal go down with the window open.

I had a the funniest run in with a homesless person. I was hit up 6 or 7 times by hobos in the last 24 hours. My clever response is, "sorry, man, I only have a debit card". Well today one of these guys responds, "no problem man, there is an ATM in the next block, I can wait for you here or come with you, if that's easier" I started laughing and walking away. He continued. He was dead serious.

 "Helping the homeless is worth walking a block man, it's a serious issue, don't you want to help the homeless?!". At this point I was far enough that he was shouting. Apparently he was not just a hobbo, he was also a the greater Chicago area hobo union rep. 

I am going back to the New York approach of pretending they are invisible that seems to work with all charities...I keeeed, kinda.

So back to my Jew-Muslim-Arab story. I waited about 12 minutes before I opened the polical can. Suprisingly all of them were not just types or labels, they were concerned for their families and their people. They get along fantastically. I suddenly remebered that I get my news from the worse place, news sources. 

I told the sirian that his name Matar Matar, may need to be revised if he is going to work in the Hispanic population  in Spanish Brooklyn (he is moving to NYC next month). I almost cracked a joke when the Jew asked if there was any money left in the budget.

This conversation, reassured me once more why people should not be divided by religion or nationality.  Becuase we loose who they really are and becuase it makes working with them in a 70 square foot office, or the world, really uncomfortable.