"El dia de los adultos mayores."

note: looking at this posting, i messed up the pictures a little bit but, hey, it was my first attempt at posting pictures. more to come...



Satisfying.
The elderly here in Tecapan are frequently ignored. Not today. At our communal house or "casa de cultura," i helped host a "day of older adults." The woman that runs the casa de cultura produced a hundred or so hand-written invitations and delivered them to the residences of the town's elderly. I was asked to help with the event, and happily agreed. It was, i don't know, FUN. In the above picture, a woman is presented with a gift. I don't think the actual gift inside will matter to her much. It's really the presense of other people and the laughing and eating and being happy that was gifted to anyone who showed up, old or young.



There. That’s the casa de cultura. I showed up there at about 9:30 this morning. After drinking coffee, laughing, and setting up for the event with the women that work there, I stood in that doorway and greeted people as they arrived. Some of these people I had never seen before. And they had never seen me, or many white people, much less talked to one. But talk we did. It was an experience. Some were clearly surprised that I could speak Spanish. One woman hugged me. So I hugged her back. She cried. She’s doesn’t get out much. And was happy to be greeted by a grinning young man. Others just kind of stood there, smiling, and, well, we just kind of hung out for a minute before they took some unseen cue to advance into the building. The best part of this, for me, is the authentic way these old people interact with me. There’s no shame or impressing or, anything. Like a child. It makes me, in turn, forget myself for just a moment. My head empties and my heart fills and im left speechless. The old man or woman walks away and im left wanting, more.



It was a really full event. I mean, we were there for a while and did a lot of things. There was the music: a pair of brothers, one blind. They walk in, one leading the other, and set up their guitars with a deliberateness. And then they play beautiful music. I was a little shocked. A few people went up to the microphone and told jokes. I didn’t understand them, but could not help but laugh at the site of other people laughing, people that probably have not laughed in a long time. We served a nice lunch of rice and chicken. A young woman sang. And me. I ran around and talked to many people and smiled, or bowed my head solemnly, only to smile again. I played with a few kids, grandsons and daughters. And I said goodbye to 100 new friends.
Yes, a good day.