Riley #72 - Huntington Park, CA - Weird Hollywood Moments; Noise, Noise, Noise

                           June 16, 2014

Hi Everyone,

   Don't worry, I am doing fine. I am hoping to go back to Chinese before I head back, but there's still time. 

It's an interesting area and you have a lot of weird moments. 

     For instance, while contacting a person around my age on the street last week, we asked him what he was interested in, trying to make conversation. He said he was learning about computers, so we asked him what he wanted to go into. He said criminal hacking...typical career choice.

  Or another investigator we invited to church and started to give him directions how to get there. He recognized the street and said it was right by his aunt's house.



     She used to live over there until she was caught selling fake IDs. He, personally, had been caught selling guns to an FBI agent, although there hadn't been enough evidence to convict him.


     You meet a lot of different situations here and, although it can be difficult to deal with, sometimes when you're trying to find people to teach and baptize, it also keeps things from becoming rote or routine. It still is a pretty safe area, so long as you not outside past midnight.

     Regardless of time of day, it seems like there are always people outside.

Like I said last time, it can be pretty noisy. Having a lesson outside is always a little difficult.

     You have the noise of a plane flying by every few minutes, people yelling, ghetto birds flying by overhead, loud music being played a few houses down, and the drone of cars who constantly pass by honking their horns.

     Sometimes they honk because the person in front is too slow, or did something illegal, or because they see someone they know, or maybe because another car honked, and even occasionally just for fun honk out rhythms with their horns. and add the random sound of an explosion, which is usually a firework, and go off periodically throughout the day and into the night.

     And of course tons of dogs barking, ice cream trucks jingle's and street peddlers honking their horns or yelling out Tamale's! and that's just the normal noise.

     On occasion, we have also had the disruptive sound of a noisy rooster. And, if you are near the tracks, add the noise and rattling of the Metro going by every 15 minutes.

     The noise can be a little distracting when you're trying to teach, but for the most part everyone is used to ignoring it and just pausing mid-sentence until the plane or ghetto bird has passed by.