Ten minutes into my journey I flipped my two pence coin into the air for the ninth time, but this time failed to catch it! It landed and rolled away from me and my bike. A passerby picked it up. I must have looked lost because he immediately asked me if I needed directions. I very briefly explained what I was doing and he was surprisingly receptive of the concept. I decided to explain more and asked him if it would be alright to walk with him. He said 'sure'. His name was Andrew. I'd guess he was between 15-19 years of age. He was helping a friend's family out by posting flyers through people's doors which were advertising their chinese take-away business. He had 500 flyers to deliver. From experience he said it would take him around three hours to do. He was a very friendly guy and I would have liked to have chatted to him more but found it difficult because he kept ducking in and out of people's houses in order to his post his flyers. In the five minutes I spent with him I found him to be bright, modest and articulate. I found this surprising for a person of his age i.e. not the stereotypical image of young teenagers I currently have. We shook hands I gave him my e-mail address in case he wanted to hear more about the project and continued with my random journey.
There were two times in the journey that the toss of coin made me double back on myself and I feared I was going to end up at my home or very near to it. Fortunately this did not happen, although the street I did end up arriving at was probably just over a mile from my home.
I arrived at my destination (Reynolds Road, SE4) at 11:34. I was immediately faced with a deserted residential street - one side social housing the other predominantly private. It was then that I realised that it would be better to knock on people's doors and try to engage them in conversation rather than approaching them on the street. Well to be honest I'd do both, but I suspect I will discover that people who are in their own homes will be more willing to chat than those on the street because they are trying to get to some place. Only time will tell whether this assumption is correct. With no one around I immediately started knocking on people's doors. I started knocking on the doors of the social housing side first because it was the side I was more nervous about and I wanted to face my fears (however imaginary they might be).
On the fourth door I knocked on, the door was opened by a middle aged asian man. He listened patiently to the explanation of how I ended up standing before him. He was genuinely receptive but was busy. However he was happy for me to come back later in the day and chat. I said that I might take him up on his offer and left smiling. My first encounter was not met with cynicism and disdain as I had anticipated; although listening to my own explanation aloud for the first time - I did wonder to myself why was I doing this. If I was on the receiving end of my spiel I wouldn't help wonder what was lacking in this guy's life that possessed him to do such a thing...I would be thinking that his explanation goes some way to explaining his reasons but not all the way. I'd be thinking to myself that it doesn't fully stack up...and they'd be right. What I really want to get out of this experience is to help people...make a difference in some way both practically and emotionally. It's funny how only now I have fully realised that myself!
With contact made on the social housing side I crossed over the road to continue my door knocking. Two doors in and I was greeted and listened to respectfully by a young family man. He too was receptive to the project but did not have ten minutes to spare to chat because he had his hand full entertaining three toddlers. Crossing back over to the social housing side (still feeling nervous about how I was going to be received by others, wondering if my first two encounters had been beginners luck.) Had to knock on ten doors before my next one was answered. Standing in front of me this time was a young teenage indian girl. Because I have a rule that prevents me from talking to anyone under 16 (self enforced I must stress) I enquired if her parents were in, they were not. I therefore left.
In the hour I was there I knocked on approximately thirty doors. Five where answered in total, two people accepted my invitation to chat. The first was a forty year old man named Graham. One of his interests was motorsport. In fact he worked as a marshall prior to 9/11, after which he was laid off. Wanted to invite him out for a drink, but he was in his boxer shorts so suspected he'd decline. The second person I spoke to at the woman aged between 60-70. She was looking after her grandchildren but was willing to chat. Discovered she was a big Clint Eastwood fan. She also liked playing on games consoles! She had lived there for about thirty years. She previously lived in Peckham but was forced to moved by the council because they wanted to re-develop the land. Her name was Gwen. After 10-15 mins chat I said goodbye.
Looked at my watch as I walked back to my locked up bicycle. It was 12:30. I was surprised how tired I was. Decided to call it a day content with day 1 on new project and feeling more positive about it's viability. I do need to see how I can help the people I encounter. Otherwise I'm really just wasting their time.
To be continued...
