Maplewood Farm, North Vancouver

I had high hopes for processing a lot more photos and writing out a few stories, but on Day 7 of the Olympics I got completely sucked into CTV’s live streaming coverage on the internet to watch the mens hockey game against Switzerland… then didn’t resurface until after the mens figure skating was finished. There goes Thursday night!

Last Monday afternoon while in Atlanta I ducked into a coffee shop called Danneman’s to warm up after shooting around the neighbourhood where Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up (Old 4th Ward). I sat down with a hot drink and pulled everything out of my bag to rearrange it for the rest of the walk home. Little did I know that my iPod Touch had fallen to the floor, something I would’ve noticed if I reached for it, but I make a point of putting it away for walking at night. I keep the iPod Touch housed in a rubber casing, which muffled the sound of the device hitting the ground. I was oblivious.

About an hour later, I was at the house downloading my thousand photos or so from a big day of shooting when an email arrived in my inbox with a ping!

I found your IPOD touch!

At first I was totally bewildered. Isn’t my iPod Touch in my bag?? Not according to the email:

Hey!
My name is Ryan.
I found your ipod touch at danneman’s coffee shop about 20 min ago.
call me… I’m downtown editing video right now at Georgia State University (I’m a student!)

[phone number]

-Yay!!!

PS I tried to call but you had a canadian # and my phone wouldn’t allow me to

I borrowed Halef’s phone to call Ryan, and thanked him profusely, adding that I was leaving the following day so I would meet him wherever he happened to be. I was fully prepared to take transit to the university, but then he said it would be easier for him to bike to me. Then I suggested the closest Marta station, and he suggested to meet back at the coffee shop. Then Michael offered to drive me to the coffee shop to save me a trek in the cold and dark. It was one act of kindness after another.

Thanks to the Atlantans, all of whom were complete strangers before I arrived, I was reunited with my iPod Touch which has travelled with me to Morocco, Spain, England, Norway, Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovakia, around Canada and the USA… I shouldn’t get attached to an ageing piece of hardware, but it’s served me well since 2007 and I use it every single day. (Incidentally, it was also a gift from a friend — another act of kindness.)

I have other stories from Atlanta, too, conversations I had with random people on the street, people curious about my photographic interest in their city, smiling folk behind cash registers and happy bus drivers alike. I was struck by such widespread politeness and warmth from the people, I had to write about it.

When the US Homeland Security officer asked me at Pearson Airport last Friday the purpose of my visit to Atlanta, he burst out laughing when I exclaimed “FUN!” without hesitation. (Anytime I can make a US border official laugh is a momentous occasion, indeed. Especially when the security queues are as long as they are now, and everyone’s patience has worn thin.) He seemed genuinely surprised that I would fly to a city in the south where I knew no-one, on the basis that it was a points flight with no connections, and because it was Black History Month.

“It was a sign,” he said casually and without a trace of sarcasm or disbelief, ignoring the growing crowd of people behind me waiting for their turn.

I was enthused by his rather unofficial-sounding answer. “It really was!” Then he stamped my passport and sent me on my way.

Video for today: one of the more famous bands from Georgia — REM — are from Athens, and this is their 1991 classic “Shiny Happy People”

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