Nelson

Nelson cracks me up. Really, he makes me giggle a lot.
Not that he is trying to be funny, its just the way he is and what he comes out with that makes my day.
Nelson is a long time street friend. Many of the Reach Out volunteers interact with him and he has touched the lives of many.
Nelson can be found in most places on the days that we operate the Street Feeding Programme. Sometimes at Bus Stand Klang, sometimes at Kota Raya, sometimes at Masjid India, sometimes at Menara Maybank.
He gets around a lot and sleeps where he sees fit.
He assists us from time to time and a few weeks ago helped get me and some of the guys down a very thin, very rickety ladder from Bus Stand Klang onto the riverside to take some food to few folks under one of the bridges.
Nelson is Chinese, 60 years of age and quite tall. He has a shock of grey hair and a set jaw that would intimidate "Rocky". His English is great.
But he has a weak spot.
He hates being photographed, (hence the reason there are no images of Nelson in this blog)!
Whenever a camera, or TV crew appear, he is the first, (and sometimes the only one), to request that he doesn't have his image taken.
Its not that he is superstitious about this. But we can't get to the bottom of his reason.
Long time ago he stated that it was because he didn't want his family to know he was living on the streets.
Just recently he announced, with a dramatic simulated cut of his throat using his left hand as an imaginary knife, that his family were "shhhhhhhhaaaa...mati"!
The next reason was that he was wanted by the Police in Penang. I checked. He's not!
Last Saturday the 23rd was another classic.
Our dear volunteer Ling and her hubby Jeff were with us at Kota Raya about 2.45am when Nelson approached.
Ling was wearing one of her yoga style thick dark headbands.
Nelson wanted to know if she had converted to Islam as she was now wearing a tudung!!
And Nelson has decided that he wants to become a priest!
He had a Bible recently and was proudly showing this to us but it seems to have disappeared. He has now asked us if we can get him another.
Mind you, Nelson spends a fair bit of time at the Christian Fellowship Mission and could get one himself. Or so he claims! Another mystery perhaps.
But he doesn't want to be "a goody goody priest" He wants to be "a baddy priest".
I have still to figure out what this means!!