Saturday, November 7, 2009

Lindsey and I are resting under the covers. The piano man is still playing in the lobby, we can hear him from our room on the 4th floor. He comes every day to Hotel Faraona and plays a wide repertory of Latin American music from 2:00 PM until late at night. He claims to have traveled the world; he speaks French and knows every song we asked for, from Nicaraguan revolutionary songs to Colombian tangos from the highlands. He must be sad that most of the participants from our training have left; they were his captive audience. It makes me sad too; saying goodbye to people always hits me, even when I had just met them. The hotel is now filled with new faces, afro-peruvian women that came to Lima for a conference. It's almost 9:00 PM and we need to get ready to meet with Sean, Sdenka and Javier for a drink. We are going to Juanitos, a famous old cantina in Barranco that sells pork sandwiches. The piano man is now playing a famous Oscar de Leon's salsa song. Lindsey is curled-up in her bed trying to use any extra time to rest and I'm trying to find a nice way to end this post. I should stop writing now, as Sean might call our room anytime to ask if we are ready to meet downstairs.

2 comments:

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Juan Martínez Louvier said...

It is funny how some words of your lobby hotel reflection took a complete different meaning to me. I think about your “saying goodbye to people always hits me”. You were writing from a Miraflores nice hotel. Sometimes – like now - when you clearly indicate where you are located, I use to search for that point at the google earth. This time it was very surprising to find you just two blocks distance from the hotel I was in January. Then it came to my mind that, you living in New York, where I was at the summer, I remember our last goodbye was in Paris!! So I think about the lots of things that now you’re saying « hello » in Peru, when I was saying goodbye before. Sometimes time and space seems to be different things, when, maybe, they are all just the same! Hugs. J