British Tramp

Not long after I arrived in Sheffield, I noticed that homeless people often appeared on the streets, especially in areas close to the city center. Almost every time I walked on the street, I encountered a ragged homeless man with his mouth open. Asking for money is something I didn’t expect before going abroad. How can there be homeless people in an old capitalist country with such good social welfare? However, there are not only homeless people here, but a lot of them. The areas where these homeless people live are relatively fixed, mainly the Christmas Market Square opposite the City Hall and several surrounding streets. They are rarely seen in other areas. This also surprised me. According to Chinese thinking, the city hall is where the city government operates, and it should be the most prestigious place in a city. Unkempt homeless people must not be allowed to roam nearby and affect the appearance of the city. However, Sheffield City Council has no such consideration at all and allows homeless people to wander around and beg on the streets. Wouldn't it damage the perception of the city by local residents and tourists? As a foreigner, I can’t figure out what the British think, and of course I can’t control it.

Although this kind of surprise may seem inhumane, I actually have no ill intentions towards these homeless people. On the contrary, I often show kindness to them. At first, I didn’t carry cash with me when I went out on the street, so I swiped my credit card when I wanted to spend money. However, I often encountered homeless people who took the initiative to talk to me and asked me to give me some money for food. Since I didn’t have any change, I could only refuse with a wave of my hand. I am a thin-skinned person with a good heart. After refusing several times, I felt guilty and decided to go out and stuff a few pounds of coins in my pocket. I originally planned to give some charity to any tramp who asked me for something, no more than a pound. But then I thought about it, besides these sullen people asking for money, there were also many homeless people who couldn't open their mouths. They sit on the ground with cardboard boxes or hats in front of them. They only look at passers-by with pleading eyes but never speak. They are completely passive compared to those who open their mouths. I think that even if a homeless man opens his mouth to ask for money and is rejected many times, he will always gain something in a day, but this is not the case for these homeless people who cannot open their mouth. It all depends on luck and the mood of passers-by. Therefore, I decided to refuse all the guys who asked me for money, and only gave alms to those homeless people with pitiful eyes or who looked like they were going to have a miserable life. Therefore, every time I go out from now on, it is a time for me to do good deeds and accumulate merit.

However, my kindness only lasted about a month. One evening, I was coming back from the city center and passed by Sainsbury’s. I saw a homeless man sitting cross-legged next to the door. He was wearing a dirty gray-green cotton hat. He looked so haggard that he was a little out of shape. I suddenly felt kindhearted, walked into the supermarket, bought a bag of freshly baked bread, and handed it to him when I went out. However, after he took the bread, he didn't even look at me or say thank you. Instead, he greeted a homeless man who was walking towards him from the other side of the street and completely ignored me. His attitude instantly chilled me. Originally, giving means giving to each person to get what they need. The giver is psychologically satisfied, and the recipient is satisfied in terms of survival. Of course, the giver does not give out of kindness just to hear the word "thank you", but the attitude of the recipient is very important, at least there must be positive feedback. However, I was dissatisfied with the fact that this homeless man gave me no positive feedback.

However, if I stop being kind just because of this little thing, it would seem that I am too extreme and my kindness is too vulgar. Not long after this happened, I applied for a volunteer service activity and went to the relief base jointly run by the Sheffield Cathedral Church and a local charity organization to serve the homeless for a morning. I tentatively called this base a "home for the homeless". . The content is very simple, make breakfast in the restaurant, distribute breakfast, and clean the restaurant, similar to a waiter in a restaurant. The volunteers that morning were me and a British girl. We arrived at the homeless home before eight o'clock. The person in charge of teaching us how to do things was a white-haired white man. Judging from the gullies and age spots on his face, he was no less than sixty-five years old. The uncle was very kind and patiently taught us how to bake bread using a toaster equipped with caterpillar tracks, how to entertain homeless people, and how to distribute different breakfasts to them according to the type of meal tickets.

Around 8:30, the homeless people came to the homeless home one after another, lined up in an orderly manner to receive breakfast, and then sat down to eat. I counted about fifty or sixty homeless people who received breakfast before and after. There was only one woman, and the others were all men. While distributing breakfast, I chatted with the white man for a while. He said that some of these homeless people were illegal immigrants, but churches and charitable organizations treated them equally.

For homeless people, local relevant departments and non-governmental organizations will also provide them with language training, employment training, and even training in hobbies, but most homeless people are always unwilling to make progress. I made an observation and found that only one of the homeless people dining that day was well-behaved and well-behaved. He had a sparkle in his eyes. He even made a joke when he took the plate from my hand. If it weren’t for the fact that he came to the homeless home to eat, For breakfast, I could at most regard him as a once-successful, now-bankrupt hapless guy. In addition, other homeless people either use vulgar language or have an intimidating appearance. I remember that during the meal sharing process, for a few minutes all the clean spoons were distributed, while the dirty spoons were being cleaned in the back kitchen, leaving only the forks that could be used. At this time, a homeless man who looked to be in his twenties came to the dining table to pick up food. I put the food on his plate and then said: Sorry, we don’t have a spoon at the moment, only a fork. Why don’t you use it first? Fork, I'll send you the spoon later? When he heard this, he immediately became unhappy and said: You’re so mean. This makes me confused. I am so loud and angry, why am I being mean? The British girl standing next to me winked at me, telling me not to worry about it.

After working for more than two hours, the homeless people finished their breakfast, and the mission of the British girl and I was over. When I walked outside, I found that these homeless people did not return to the street immediately after eating breakfast. Instead, they were sunbathing in the courtyard and making noisy noises. However, there were no people in the study room and activity room in the adjacent building of the restaurant. It turns out that these guys are really not interested in training, nor in living a normal life, and just hang around all day long. Of course, this is their personal choice, and I have no right to interfere, but I think: First, life should be constantly learning and pursuing, especially when you are at a low point, you must persist in getting rid of the status quo, take some actions, and gradually Live a better life; secondly, you should always do something meaningful, or at least interesting, in your life, whether it is for yourself or society, even if you are down and out, you should have this pursuit. However, as the white man said, most homeless people are used to making progress. Even if they are given the opportunity to improve their lives for free, they ignore it, settle for the status quo, and continue to be homeless. I don't agree with this attitude towards life. Since the homeless people and I have completely different ideas, I absolutely cannot continue to be kind and encourage them to waste their lives in attitudes and practices. Therefore, after this volunteer activity ended, I stopped showing kindness to homeless people on the streets.

After I stopped giving alms, I no longer felt sorry for the homeless people on the street. I just felt that they could not hold up the wall with mud. When I met them again, I would stay away from them without even looking at them, just like the tramp who ignored my bread.

Later, the epidemic swept across the UK. Most citizens followed the government’s call and stayed at home. There were fewer and fewer passers-by on the streets. One day, I took my SLR out to get some fresh air and passed through the city center. I wanted to take advantage of the lack of passers-by to take some pictures of the street scenes. But before I took a few pictures, I noticed that there were not many passers-by but the whole street seemed to be full of homeless people. It seemed that many homeless people were interested in me, a rare potential donor, and wanted to beg for some money. At the same time, I felt that they were coveting the SLR in my hand, so I couldn't help but speed up my pace, for fear that someone would come up and snatch it away. Although I pity the situation of this group of homeless people during the epidemic. They are homeless, are at high risk of infection, and have nowhere to seek medical treatment. But I am more worried that I will become their target. After all, their livelihood is now cut off. In addition, I already had a bad impression of them, so I quickly left this land of right and wrong.

Text/?Wang Yuyang

Pictures/?Peter Spencer