Silent smiles
In the past 3 months I’ve been collaborating with a volunteering association in Ecuador. Actually, it’s the County Secretary of Volunteer Work, so we regularly visit Foundations etc. that work in our area. We decided that it would be useful to document our and their work with videos, so we set up a crew, shooting schedule etc. and last week we started filming. It’s nothing fancy, just a few moments in people’s lives captured on a little amateur video camera.
The first place we went to was a school for deaf-mute children. It’s in the Southern part of Quito, the poorest. My ‘location manager’ and I were excited. She took pictures while I was filming. We decided we absolutely have to learn the Sign Language, though we manage to communicate somehow with the kids, with the help of some of their teachers.
At some point, while I was filming a dance rehearsal (it’s truly amazing, they have a ballet and organize shows) a couple of kids got closer to the camera and showed interest in the little screen where they could see their friends. So I stopped filming, pressed the rewind button and let them watch what I had filmed. They were so happy and I found myself surrounded by smiling children. I didn’t know how to express them my joy, but maybe I just needed to keep smiling at them. Two of them started saying something to the camera with the Signs Language and dancing. Soon, each one of them wanted to do the same, send their message to the outside world, we the others who know so little of their lives, their stories.
I have no idea of what exactly they said, but I saw their smiles and the many times they thanked us. [They only signs I know so far are “Buenos Días” (’good day’, hello) and “Gracias” (thanks, thank you).] We are thinking at making a DVD for them, with subtitles too, so as to show it to everyone we can and let them see what an amazing job they are doing in that school, make them feel the power of a silent smile.
