Closer To Home Than Expected

After traveling 3,675 miles, home should have seemed light years away, but after covering the Liberties community for a few days and mingling with the locals, I’ve realized I’m closer to home than I could have ever imagined. Odd huh?

The sense of family and pride in this neighborhood reminds me of my home and community is Serbia. I guess I’m lucky to be multi-national and know the best of the Eastern and Western worlds. Though I was fairly young when we left, the minute I saw the love and sense of community in the Liberties Market, I was transported to Ulica Milorada Jevtovica Smita in Serbia where I grew-up. The commotion of neighbors talking and shop owners yelling the prices of their goods as residents walk by the Liberties Market on Meathe Place awoke a sense of remembrance of the old country.

As a six-year-old poor refugee in Serbia, there wasn’t much to do beside play with the other poor kids in my street. (This isn’t the point of the story where you feel bad for the poor little boy, so please don’t). From what I remember, the parents also bonded due to similar life situations. Pretty soon, the street became it’s own community, just like the Liberties. When going to talk to my Dublin idol –Jack Roche- his attitude and knowledge reminded me of the old man in Serbia –Guto- who was the spitting image of Mr. Roche.

The colorful fruits and vegetables that line the street in the Liberties Market exhume the vibrant colors seeping from the personalities of the shoppers and owners. What looks like a run down street with graffiti on the corroding buildings is actually the heartbeat of the community. Call it weird, call it inhuman, but there’s something about the butcher shops in the market that scream working class.

Where Serbia and Chicago drastically differ, Serbia and Dublin have a striking comparison. In Chicago, we have a routine of locking our doors as soon as night falls and god forbid we let our children play in the streets without a baby lease, monitor having 911 on speed dial. On my street back home in Serbia and in the small section of Dublin known as the Liberties, safety is not a concern. In both place, I’ve walked down in the dead of the night without looking over my shoulder or walking faster to avoid alleyways and abandoned houses.

Maybe it’s a European thing but I genuinely felt safe. Sure, I got lost numerous times and had to ask for directions but I wasn’t afraid to ask. If I got lost in Chicago, I would call the first cab to pick me up and bring me back to safety. If a stranger walked into a store on Western Avenue in Chicago looking for directions, the owner would probably press charges of trespassing. Jack Roche, on the other hand, would welcome them, give them the proper directions and pack them a few apples (only after talking their ear off for 10 minutes about the most random subjects). Sure the residents of the Liberties are going through a rough financial time, but their wealth comes from their sense of community and togetherness. It’s the same togetherness I left in Serbia in 1997. So while I may be miles away from my parents, sister, nephew and girlfriend, I am closer to home than I have been in 15 years.