Mazatlan Impressions - beginnings

Showing just how much it's a small world after all, I must begin by mentioning Suchana when I share some vignettes of the visit I made to Mazatlan for the World Harmony Run and dedication of a statue of the World Harmony Run founder Sri Chinmoy holding the Harmony Run torch.

Why a small world after all and why Suchana? Because Suchana does not live in Mazatlan (or even Mexico) but served nevertheless as a helpful and generous interpreter between some of the English speaking visitors like me who do not know Spanish and some of the Mazatlan Centre member organizers who do not know English. She was herself unable to attend the Sri Chinmoy Centre events in Mazatlan but paved the way for the first stages and steps of our journey through regular communication - even international phone calls (NOT Skype either) - to prepare us for our visit with such a wonderful standard of friendliness and hospitality.

Suchana's helpful communications were the preface to a visit so inspiring, heart-warming and full of "armonia" (harmony in Spanish) that I simply must call it life-transforming and a real keeper in the memory books of my travels around the world. Here are a few pages in that book of smiles, new friends and new cultures.

We arrived by plane in Mazatlan from Rhode Island via stops in Cleveland Ohio and Houston Texas. How lucky to have a travel voucher to provide us nearly free plane travel to Mazatlan to see a new statue of Sri Chinmoy as a direct result of agreeing to take a later flight the same day in a visit a year ago. Then we were off to see the world's first public statue of Sri Chinmoy in Oslo, Norway. One statue visit begets another. :-)

In the Mazatlan Airport arrivals area, we are met by Bhumika from Brazil and Celida from Mazatlan. A bus has been arranged for free with the local authorities to bring arriving members of the World Harmony Run international team into the city of Mazatlan some 25 minutes away. Since there is slightly under an hour until the next person arrives (the wonderful Susodaya from Mexico City), we join the arrivals contingent and start learning songs composed by Sri Chinmoy when he visited Mazatlan in 1981.

Mazatlan, Mazatlan, Mazatlan!
O snow-white heart in God's Vision-Plan!
A stupendous soul in a tiny frame,
The boat and the Boatman
offer their fondness-game.

-http://www.srichinmoysongs.com/song/view/mazatlan-o-snow-white-heart-in-gods/2808/?book=53

Mexico, Mexico, Mexico, Mexico!
Softness, boldness your beauty's core.
Mexico, Mexico, Mexico, Mexico!
Wisdom-freedom, your oneness-lore.
Your past, present, future: all angel-glow!
Your vision-eye a sleepless river-flow.

-http://www.srichinmoysongs.com/song/view/mexico-softness-boldness-your/2806/?book=53

While we waited, we sang the above beautiful songs - the latter having been performed during a meeting with then Mexican President Lopez-Portillo on Dec. 22, 1981. I am then unexpectedly approached by the woman who works at the Mazatlan Airport currency exchange counter where I changed American dollars into Mexican pesos just a short while ago.

She explains that after I left her counter with my money, she has determined that I gave her 20.00 U.S. more than I requested to exchange. She continued that she counted her till after I left and it was 20.00 U.S. over and no other person has changed money since me. Therefore, she hands me back 20.00 with such an air of concern, honesty and sincerity. I thank her for returning the money and am not too surprised that I might have counted what I gave her incorrectly since my only sleep in the last 24+ hours was a few hours on the plane ride and not at all the night before in my house before flying in the wee hours of the morning.

I can only imagine how far 20.00 American dollars might go translated into pesos and the cost of living in Mexico. I am deeply touched that within an hour of my arrival I have already borne witness to such sweet honesty. Mazatlan is fast in stamping its specialness on my heart. Again I feel welcomed as a visitor and my visit has yet to even get much underway. I have never before been to Mexico, know little of its history, culture and language from my schooling as a youth and am already starting to ponder - what have I been missing all these years?

to be continued,
Sharani