288. The homeless woman seeks shelter at the National Library
Toilet Training Your First Puppy in Singapore
Thursday April 20, 2006
A sudden movement to my left caught my eye as I put Han's bacon strip into my mouth. The bacon was not good to eat, but the coffee was aromatic today.
A thin, tanned brown lady in her late forties, big eyes popping out of sunken cheeks, grey hair to shoulder level stood on the table to my left. She snatched the leftover bread from the table and ate it. She drank the bit of coffee and started to read her newspapers.
I just could not believe what I saw at Singapore's National Library most impressive building at Victoria Street. In the prime business district of Singapore. A learning place. It was very rare to see any homeless person, let alone a homeless woman.
The fair manageress with a rounded face and gel spiked hair said, "She comes every day."
I left. Singapore seldom have homeless ladies publicly seen. This was the first time I met a Singaporean homeless lady. On other days, I was doing my puppy toilet training research, I saw her reading magazines and newspapers or going up or down the automatic starting escalator.
She would sit at the corner, in basement 2 of the National Library. Grey sofas with pink head rest. 3 plastic bags of her clothing and belongings beside her as she read the newspapers from all over the world.
I asked one librarian whether she knew of her.
"Very pitiful," the fair lady librarian at basement 2 repeated so many times and shook her head. "I had talked to her. She is homeless."
"Why does she sleep?" I asked her.
"On the bench outside the National Library." she said. "The homeless woman gets up at 6 a.m. She has free meals at the Bras Basah food court."
"Would it not be dangerous for a woman to sleep overnight in the city centre?" I asked her. Singapore does not have many roaming gangs of young peoople. It was fortunate. A wooden bench is her home.
"But what if she met one gang and got killed?" The librarian could not answer. "She is a regular client. Very pitiful!"
Thursday April 20, 2006
A sudden movement to my left caught my eye as I put Han's bacon strip into my mouth. The bacon was not good to eat, but the coffee was aromatic today.
A thin, tanned brown lady in her late forties, big eyes popping out of sunken cheeks, grey hair to shoulder level stood on the table to my left. She snatched the leftover bread from the table and ate it. She drank the bit of coffee and started to read her newspapers.
I just could not believe what I saw at Singapore's National Library most impressive building at Victoria Street. In the prime business district of Singapore. A learning place. It was very rare to see any homeless person, let alone a homeless woman.
The fair manageress with a rounded face and gel spiked hair said, "She comes every day."
I left. Singapore seldom have homeless ladies publicly seen. This was the first time I met a Singaporean homeless lady. On other days, I was doing my puppy toilet training research, I saw her reading magazines and newspapers or going up or down the automatic starting escalator.
She would sit at the corner, in basement 2 of the National Library. Grey sofas with pink head rest. 3 plastic bags of her clothing and belongings beside her as she read the newspapers from all over the world.
I asked one librarian whether she knew of her.
"Very pitiful," the fair lady librarian at basement 2 repeated so many times and shook her head. "I had talked to her. She is homeless."
"Why does she sleep?" I asked her.
"On the bench outside the National Library." she said. "The homeless woman gets up at 6 a.m. She has free meals at the Bras Basah food court."
"Would it not be dangerous for a woman to sleep overnight in the city centre?" I asked her. Singapore does not have many roaming gangs of young peoople. It was fortunate. A wooden bench is her home.
"But what if she met one gang and got killed?" The librarian could not answer. "She is a regular client. Very pitiful!"
posted by Photography by Sing Kong Yuen | 10:48 AM
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