This morning found me wandering the streets with my friend Jo, looking for a homeless man that we were trying to give a manicure to. I suppose that sentence needs some explanation and background information.
Yesterday Jo saw one of the homeless guys that we used to regularly see when we were doing our homeless run (which we're trying to start back up). He's from Poland and he's tugged at all of our heart strings as he is such a gracious man who just wants to find work. Jo took him to lunch and tried talking to him with the 5 words of English he seems to know and she noticed his fingernails were extremely long and needed to be trimmed. She tried to communicate to him that she wanted to trim his nails but it wasn't getting through and it came down to him saying that he would be at 'his spot' tomorrow if she wanted to see him again.
She had phoned me to see if I would go with her and I was happy to go and see him again. Branden also just bought his new winter coat so we decided to give the man his old waterproof Colombia coat. Before I left for Jo's, she sent me a text saying, "Ok...so I am using google translate to explain to *homeless guy's name* what Maggie and I want to do (cut his nails). Thank goodness I re-translated back into English. First time had "temptations with hand cream". Got to get the word "temptations" outta there. No fantasies with hand cream. Second time had me applying the cream for cancer! (how did hand cream become so deadly) Oh Lord, please let the right message go out. Has me in stitches anyway."
I was in tears reading this to Branden! The homeless guy has always been respectful to us women so I could imagine him blushing terribly and being very embarrassed if we handed him a note, our faces beaming with smiles, and him reading that we have temptations with hand cream! We loaded Jo's bike trailer with some apples, hot chocolate, hot water, bowl, towel, soap, and Mary Kay's Satin Hands. Jo and I ended up going to 'his spot' and he wasn't there so we wandered around the typical places in town we have seen him or would expect him to be, but still no sign. We did managed to give two guys begging on the streets some hot chocolate and being such a cold day, we at least felt like we helped someone. As we headed back home, we ran into an old friend of Jo's who is Polish and he read our note...and told us to never use google translate! I gave him a pen and he edited the note for us. Apparently the word used for 'cutting his nails' needed to be changed to 'trimmed' as the word on the note meant to cut off completely, or sever! Maybe it was a good thing we didn't find him!
Oh well, we tried, and I'll carry Branden's old coat with me in case I run into him sometime. I would just advise all of you to be careful trusting online translation programs as you may find yourself in quite the blush worthy scenario!
As promised yesterday, here is the video we made for Hunter's birthday. Branden did pretty much everything to make the robot head...and he had way too much fun making it! Hope you enjoy!
You are so awesome.
ReplyDeleteThat was so cute! What a great thing to do; and he can show it to his kids someday!
ReplyDeleteOne of your top ten videos!!
ReplyDeleteIm having trouble getting the video to play. I'll come back and try again later. Speaking of temptations with hand cream, I had Elvis Aaron Schwarz soak his feet in hot scented water. Then I massaged his feet and legs with lotion. He seemed rather pleased.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Oh my gosh! I can't even imagine how excited little 6 yr old Hunter would be to get this. You guys are so great.
ReplyDeleteAnd tooling around town to try to find the Polish dude to help out? Even more awesome. So glad there are people like you in the world.
You are both awesome, I'm in awe of your awesomeness. The robot idea was way cool. I do hope you find homeless guy before he starts hanging on a tree with his talons...lol. You guys rock!
ReplyDeleteThe video just worked for me. It's adorable. I wish I had an Auntie Moo.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Yeah, the google translate can really mess you up.
ReplyDeleteLike getting crumbs in your gears.
You two are great! I liked your Robot birthday video. The six year old would have had fun with it. OK too about using Google translation. I have used it occasionally and had no response from those I have used it on. Probably for the reason you suggest? Ouch! - Dave
ReplyDeleteIt's nice of you guys to try to help that guy out. This is one of the worst times to migrate to this country without a penny and barely able to speak English. There simply are no jobs.
ReplyDeleteThe video reminds me of something that I did when I was a kid. I had decided to try to make myself a suit of armor out of cardboard. I had old wrapping paper tubes that I could use to make armor for my arms and legs, but I needed a chest protector. I found a big purple box and started to use that. But my dad saw what I was doing and stopped me. He said I needed to go show my mom and ask her how she felt about it. So I took my purple box that was going to be my chest-plate and asked Mom. She looked at it and then looked at my dad and screamed "NO!" Turns out it was a purple Kotex box. I was a kid. I didn't know what Kotex was. I just knew the box was the perfect size. I would have made a great knight, a purple Kotex knight. Ah well.
Very kind of you!
ReplyDeleteTemptations with hand cream.... is that a fact? Dear Lord, I'm sure the boys and girls from Google translate are cracking themselves up: 'What else can we do to make our translations really creative?' I hope you're doing fine, Padded Cell Princess.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I've had to rebuild my blog from scratch (don't ask) and my new address is www.thebluegrumpster.blogspot.com . Don't forget to press that all important button.... follow (still)... I'll do the same. :)