Middle of Everywhere - Mary Bray Pipher [147]
I noticed Fatima and Deena sitting on the edge of the fountain giggling together, just as they did at Sycamore School. They greeted me happily and Fatima asked, "Miss Mary, please take our picture." I hugged them and asked them to smile for the camera.
American teens with tattoos and rings in their noses lolled around the Chilean musicians and African drummers. A woman in traditional Middle Eastern clothes strolled past with her husband. The couple looked happy, talking to each other, and carrying a bag of peppers and tomatoes. Patti, the student at the high school who had been interested in information about birth control, listened to the music with Khoi and her baby, a little boy who looked a lot like his father. Khoi clapped his son's hands to the music. Patti showed me their wedding rings and I snapped their picture.
Country people displayed hostas, pottery, quilts, and rag rugs. Mennonite ladies sold angel food cakes and dilly bread. A big guy dressed in high heels and a cotton dress sold cut flowers and bedding plants to somewhat puzzled locals. Our local community college had a chef-in-training booth. Fresh-faced chefs from many countries handed out samples of quesadillas and crepes. Long lines of people of all nationalities—Bosnian, Sudanese, Vietnamese, Afghani, and Mexican—waited behind pickup trucks for fresh sweet corn.
We stopped at our favorite booth to buy lettuce and greens. The air always smelled of basil and mint around this booth. Today Maren, the baby daughter of a friend, and my friend Twyla were celebrating their birthdays. Maren, wearing a hat made of balloons, nibbled on a pita from the Greek booth. Every time I saw her she was eating a new kind of bread. I photographed the birthday girls together.
Our friends Terry and Chris played music in the sunshine by the train mural. They played Irish songs, Civil War ballads, waltzes, and Czech polkas. All ages and kinds of people enjoyed the music played outdoors, where music sounds best.
The train mural was made of locally produced bricks. Already it had acquired a legend about a hidden image in the bricks—supposedly a picture of a naked woman. People of all ages have searched for this woman in the train smoke, clouds, and landscape.
As the musicians played a waltz, children and a few older people danced, and Leda tapped her toes and swayed. Maria and Rosa from Even Start showed up with all their kids and with Rosa's new baby in a stroller. I marveled at so many new babies on this sunny morning.
Chunky Nebraskans and smaller, darker newcomers shared ice-cream cones and sunlight as they absorbed the music, the color, and the aromas of this busy place and time. The beautiful Kurdish sisters were buying cucumbers and tomatoes. I waved to them and asked when Tanya would make me some biryani. Jim took my picture with the laughing sisters.
Patti and Khoi bought Asian eggplants, fresh lemongrass, and bitter melons. The longest lines were for the Norfolk melons. As I waited in line, I could almost inhale the hope of this Saturday morning. I bought a three-dollar watermelon and thought of a Greg Brown line about life, "It's like a thump ripe melon. So sweet and such a mess."
As I looked at our truck beds of sweet corn and nectarines, our booths of tomatoes and bread, our neighbors and musician friends, the refugees and old-timers, the blue sky above and the gladiolas and coneflowers below, I thought to myself that my healing package is my hometown. On a morning like this, it's the best healing package for us all.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Working with People for whom English is a New Language
There are two main rules: Don't assume anything and Ask questions. For example, How do you greet people in your culture?
Interviews are stressful and the setting is important.