Vera Sytch's Posts
My Kodak Moment in Oaxaca
It happened in a village whose name I can't pronounce in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico. During that trip, my family and several members of our church youth group visited the indigenous Chinanteco people to distribute school supplies and clothing in their villages.
The high point of the trip was staying in one of those villages. Accessible only by steep, switchbacked dirt roads, Chinanteco villages don't get many foreign guests. Thus our group was a curiosity to the children from the moment we arrived.
The villagers were extremely hospitable and immediately began emptying one of their homes to make room for our group and cooking meals to share with us.
Even though we didn't know the Chinanteco language, and not all the villagers knew Spanish, we communicated with smiles and gestures. We ate with the villagers, played with the children, and worshipped in their church.
But my sweetest memory is a walk that we took around the village.
It started with this young boy. He began to follow me as I took pictures. When I photographed him then showed him his image on the camera's LCD, he was hooked.
Soon his friends joined him.
They all wanted to see their pictures on the back of the camera.
As we passed other children in their yards, they came to see what all the excitement was about.
I'd point to a spot where I wanted the group to stand, then back away and yell, "Uno! Dos! Tres!!" At the count of three, I'd take the picture, and the kids would race towards me, vying to see the image on the LCD.
I felt like the Pied Piper. More and more children joined our walk.
Apparently I mispronounced the numbers, so as we strolled through the village, the group belted out numbers in Spanish, teaching me the correct pronunciation. I repeated after them.
"UNO!!!" they shouted.
"Uno!" I said.
"DOS!!!"
"Dos!"
"TRES!!!!!!!!"
"Tres!" (which sounds like treys).
I had so much fun marching through the village with these children that I asked my daughter to take my picture with them.
This picture always triggers the warm glow of sweet memories, and I can't help but smile inside.
It was my Kodak Moment.
Comments
Posted By: Randy (11/19/2009)
Comment: Vaya con niños y Dios.
Posted By: Ann Poulin (10/31/2009)
Comment: Vera, Thanks so much for sharing this with me. I loved the story and the pictures. What a wonderful experience! Hope all is well with you and your family. Keep me updated! Ann
Posted By: Bill Bader (10/29/2009)
Comment: Vera, You have been blessed by these children and their families and they by you and your group. Thanks for sharing. Beautiful photography as always.
Posted By: Alicia (10/26/2009)
Comment: Sweet and heartwarming. Thank you, Vera, for sharing. Alicia
Posted By: John (10/22/2009)
Comment: Dear Vera, What an inspiration and blessing! Thank you for sharing this wonderful time with the children of Oaxaca.
Posted By: Marianna O'Brien (10/20/2009)
Comment: Vera, you are an inspiration to us all! This is a wonderful photo story. Thanks for sharing.
Posted By: Peg Mauer (10/18/2009)
Comment: Vera, Thanks so much for keeping me informed of your travels and sharing your photos and stories. I think of you often; we support an orphan in Haiti and our church makes annual trips to the orphanage to take supplies and help with improvements. I hope to go someday and take photos and share stories as you have. They usually go in October, which is a busy time for me since I'm back on a school schedule. But your stories and photos always inspire me. Thanks so much! Keep up the great work!
Posted By: Rita (10/16/2009)
Comment: What a wonderful example of how the curiousity of one child, leads to the curiousity of a village of children - leads to a magic moment... Some of the best things in life are like that -- including some friendships. I'm so glad to be a part of your village.
Posted By: Lawrence Nazarian (10/16/2009)
Comment: Vera, what a wonderful pediatric story! Thanks for sharing. Larry Nazarian
Posted By: Robbin (10/16/2009)
Comment: Vera, I love that story (as I do all your blogs!). You've triggered my memories of a trip to the Dominican Republic where the same thing happened at a camp for displaced persons. The same young boy appears throughout my scrapbook. The funniest thing was that I called him by one name all day, he never corrected me, but at the end of the day I found out it wasn't his name! (it was another boy in the group and I'd gotten mixed up) I felt so bad but he just smiled. And then I got to return a year later and took multiple copies of the pictures back with me and it was wonderful to see everyone enjoying them and giggling about how they looked the year before and how much they had changed.
Posted By: Joel (10/16/2009)
Comment: Wow. I love the way the pictures build, with more and more faces in each. Their smiles are so genuine.
Posted By: Regina (10/16/2009)
Comment: Vera - what a beautiful story and it shows the epitome of what a Kodak Moment really means. He always puts us in the right place with the right tools, yes? Godspeed!