In fact, it was Sandra’s fault. She invited me for a cup of coffee.
I was moody and tired that day and unable for action after dinner. But, that lady is something special for me and I just, without much thinking, rushed downstairs and went out.
- Do you want your coffee right now or we can go to our little park immediately? - she asks me naively, giving me her favorite skirt and blouse she likes most.
-Put it on. You can’t go out wearing these ruined pants to meet the foreigners.
-Foreigners? Which foreigners? And my pants are just fine. That was my cat, Clementine. She sharpened her claws on them.
- I'm interviewing some great people from children's camp and their friends from Texas. You just can’t imagine what a great family they are.
Who knows Sandra, knows that everything is great for her. I believed that she somehow had found some boring folks and wanted to interview them only because they were Texans. At that moment nothing was significant for me. I just wanted to sleep and drink my coffee.
Ignoring my grumbling, she started to put on me a blouse and only laughed at my remark that she wears clothes two sizes smaller than me.
- Don’t worry. It's too big for me. It is perfect for you. Believe me!
Denis the Menace!
Anyway, for the moment I was sitting in a coffee shop, chatting with a brilliant camera operator who was supposed to record the interview and couple of Slovaks who decided to move to Niš, just like me. Every summer they organize summer children's camp on a large ranch arranged like those in the West.
But, the biggest surprise was the family of Texans. Gwyn talked as if he had just jumped out of a cowboy movie, but without Stetson. However, he was tall and slim and hardly resembled the stereotype of "fat, noisy Texan with a hat" I had in my head.
And Cyndi..uhh..
You know a well-known story about an American plastic, professional smile which is not from the soul like ours is. Well, my dears, that American girl was certainly not from that story. A million dollar smile was shining on her face and spreading joy to everyone with whom she talked to.
The pure beauty of life.
This unusual eight-member family lives on Gwyn’s pension and spends all free time singing to people with Alzheimer's disease. Their Bluegrass causes reactions even to people with an advanced stadium of that horrible disease.
They came to Serbia for the first time three years ago. Since then they have participated in the workshops in summer camps, taught children to sing, played and rejoiced in life. Cyndi also has held free classes for children who want to play the ukulele. Every child who has ever completed the course got one instrument as a present.
We spent hours talking about everything. Among other things, I mentioned that I've been a member of the group “Help for vulnerable citizens of Nis” for years. We have just started with our new action 'CEPeNIng'. It is about collecting bottle caps. After recycling them, we buy wheelchairs for people in need.
The reaction was immediate.
- We can collect bottle caps too, and we will bring them to you next year.
I was really touched. But I was not prepared for the next sentence.
- If you agree, I will ask our priest and the whole of our community. We can collect bottle caps for you in our church on Sundays.
Do I agree?
I was speechless. I didn't ask how she has imagined bringing all those bottle caps from Texas to Niš.
But, she is the women who gave birth to six children and taught them to go through life with music and love. She flew half of the world to study other people's children to play this unusual instrument during the whole month without payment. She came to see Niš and in a second decided to play to people in the park for the pure pleasure. Well, she can handle a small problem such as moving large bags full of bottle caps all over the ocean.
I love you, Cyndi. You are a fantastic woman.
No comments:
Post a Comment