Dec. 15, 2006
I’ve left Mexico City. After two weeks, Ursula’s has become a home away from home, and I’m off to another: San Agustin Oapan, where I had spent a summer studying Nahuatl.
I’m in Cuernavaca now, with my good friend Emiliana. We’ve kept in contact on and off over the last two and a half years over email. She met me at the church today, and I barely recognized her. With her hair cut short and streaked with blond, she had evolved. Her smile stayed the same, though. I will always be able to recognize Mili by her smile.
I’ll be sleeping in the bed, alone, that she and her sister usually share. Tomorrow I’ll have a space in her grandmother’s house in Oapan, and there I’ll share in their food as I did here today. I am so fortunate, so humbled by these people, my friends. I can only hope to be so good to my guests in the future.
They remind me of so many people I met with the Otra and vice-versa. They are of little means but invite you to their beds, dinner tables and lives. They ask for nothing in return, except to enjoy their company. Anything less (and especially more) is an insult.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I am excited to go home and not the least bit nervous about speaking Nahuatl. Sometimes words don’t matter as much as presence, showing up, and being human.
To Oapan. To people who understand struggle, land, good food, how to treat and take care of each other… to my Oapanecos.
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