Imagine walking down a crowded busy street, your eyes buried in your cell phone and the unsettling news of the day.  Scrolling through FB posts, belaboring one obstinate opinion over another.

Your thoughts percolating with lists of To-Dos.

People pass you, bumping shoulders without making eye contact.

When you hear the whistle of a tea kettle…

You look up to see the warm wooden interior of a white mini-bus and a sign that reads, FREE TEA

Inside is the thing you most need right now, something you haven’t had all day, or maybe even all week:  

Genuine human interaction, absent of monetary incentives.

A place to sit with others you’ve never met and make connections you never considered.  A man named Guisepi pouring tea for whomever enters, a man who knows RELATIONSHIPS to be of the highest value and speaks on the importance and necessity of a relationship-based economy.  Your feet, moved by a desire so innate you can’t name it, carry you to the threshold.

You enter.

Welcome to Edna Lu and the Free Tea Party.