Friends at Last

There was a daily influx of one or two people showing up to go to the lake...as well as a daily departure of people who had gone to the lake the day before. We realized everyone stayed just one day and then left. No one seemed to take any time to get to know the people in the village.

We were getting to know the kids and some of the ladies of the village better and better every day. I decided I was going to figure out how to get Manuela a bit friendlier. Over breakfast one morning I talked with her a lot and complimented her and made an extra effort to get to know her. I could feel the ice thawing. After about an hour or so of visiting, I determined I had a new friend.

I finally left to go relax a bit. As I walked out, there were some ladies sitting on their porch across the way and they motioned to me to come sit with them. We went over and I ended up visiting with them for a few hours. Manuela was obviously listening to us and would poke her head out every so often to laugh with what we were saying. Sierra was playing with the kids and we were all having a great time. One lady was expressing how much she wanted to go tot he US and I was trying to let her know it is not all it's cracked up to be for immigrants and what a hard life it is for them and that she was better off staying here in her town. I explained that people are so busy in the US that they have to make an appointment days ahead of time to spend one hour together...that you would never just come sit on someone's porch for hours at a time to visit. They all thought that was very strange and laughed and laughed at that idea.

Finally I left to go back to my cabaña, but only made it a few more houses before more people motioned for me to come sit and relax with them. All in all, I didn't ever make it back to the cabaña, but I did cement in my mind that I loved Zapata and the people there.

Now we were like celebrities everywhere we went. We swam in the river with the kids, we visited with the people on the porches, the ladies taught me how to do my laundry in the river using the rocks. We were beginning to feel a part of the village and it's life. We decided not to leave on Thursday.