A song of friendship :)

Day 6

February 24, 2010

“All in a smile and a wave.”

After being in a constant state of discomfort since I arrived I figured I would take what the sisters said to heart, I should take up to 48 hours of rest and have some quiet time. While the rest of the group went to visit Tepotzlan, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, I decided I would do some typical ‘house cleaning.’

While the majority of the group is staying in dormitory-style rooms closer to the dining hall Caila and I have a small, almost apartment like, place down at the other corner of the property. Determined to get well, I went through my clothes hanging some in the sun to freshen up and throwing others in a bag to get cleaned. You know when your not feeling well, and you feel like everything you touch is becoming infested with germs and no matter how hard to try that ora illness lingers in everything you touch? As nasty as it sounds, this is how I felt, and what I was trying to get rid of. As I remake my bed and hung some sweaters to air out, I listened to my Ipod and innocently sang along. Not knowing there were people working nearby and forgetting how congested I was and not being able to hear how horrible I sounded, I gradually grew louder and louder until to my surprise, right on the other side of my patio space were two middle aged Mexican men working away... probably plugging their ears the entire time.

I quickly shut up and went inside a little embarrassed. I started working on some other things, cleaning the dishes, folding clothes, and before I knew it there I was again singing away. I laughed at my forgetfulness and quietly asked the universe to not let them hear me.

I noticed we were out of clean drinking water, as tap water is not sanitary to drink, so I thought I would walk up to the dorm area and get some more water. In order to do I needed to pass these Mexican gentlemen not once, but twice in order to get there and back. On the way up I was able to go unnoticed, I traded our empty water vase for a fresh one and took a small walk around the grounds. On my way back down to our apartment I made eye contact with the younger of the two men working outside of my room. At first I was a little embarrassed, as everyone else had left for the day, it was very apparent I was the only white girl around and therefore was the one responsible for the melody of death in which I would like to call singing. Within the few split seconds our eyes met I had enough time to contemplate my reaction, do I turn and play oblivious? Do I stay silent and look the other way?

I was far enough away they may not have been able to hear me say hello over their work but close enough they could make out my facial expressions and what they meant. Within the short seconds I had to react, I decided I would do what we should always do when we see someone look our way, acknowledge their presence.

And so I smiled and waved, and to my surprise the Mexican gentlemen did the same. It was a friendly wave and a comforting smile. It was the kind of wave that reminded me of children at a parade, quick, firm and excited. It wasn’t just a raise of the hand or nod of the head but a genuine, teeth bearing smile and hand flailing wave. It made me feel good and I was surprised how with that one small gesture I wanted to open up to them, go see what they were doing, ask them for their names, see if I could help.

It was interesting to learn that as I continued to walk to my room, my smile was growing bigger. That smiled stayed on my face for the rest of day. It wasn’t because I was in love, or had won a million dollars, or found out I was magically not going to be sick anymore it was something better than all of those things and more simple than imaginable. It was because the eyes of two strangers had met and instead of turning away we decided to smile and wave.