Dear Friends in Okinawa, I want to thank you with all my Itariajin heart for bringing happiness yesterday to the crippled edition of the Matsuri Latino. Even if without a food orgy or amazing circus performances, I really enjoyed the friendly situation. We have been blessed by the weather and by Naha's municipality that gave us the chance to continue this event even if not in the previous style. Yesterday, on the rooftop of the new Tsunami Evacuation Building, people of Japan, Mexico, France, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, U.S.A., Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru met each other: quite an interesting chanpurū in six languages (seven, including the Uchinaaguchi).
Wind and chips, always very good friends
(Satoko, trying to kill herself with nunchaku)
Bolivia
PRESENTE!
Europa Vintage Okinawa
PRESENTE!
M.I.T.O.
(Movimento Italiano Tressette Okinawa)
PRESENTE!
Satoko
(finally, after 5 years)
PRESENTE!
We Love Okinawa's Neko
PRESENTE!
France
PRESENTE!
(France??)
Mexico & Tope
PRESENTE!
It has been quite hard to build the whole thing: too many rules about selling food and drinks and some media mistakes for the promotion gave me several headaches. However, I'm very happy for the result. We could even sing a Christmas song with just one month of anticipation...
I'd like to stress how I am not an 'organizer' of anything, but simply a stubborn immigrant that thinks that a crippled event is better that no event at all. I also think that the Matsuri Latino has been always a friendly teamwork, never a business nor the job of a single person. And so I wish it will be in the future, if it will continue.
My deepest THANKS to all the people that this year made it possible: the super-job of Rumiko Onaka and Akemi Sesoko, the best host of Okinawa Juan Carlos Lugo, Gino Goya the baker and the unpaid taxi driver, Maestro Pietro Sartogo for holding a university-level class of Tressette and to all the nice volunteers that helped bringing up-and-down heavy table and boxes. It has been fun sweating together. And thanks to the friends who brought yummy food and Latin BUNKA.
A G(h)enta-san Production
(can you smell the lemon?)
A Goya-san Production
(can you smell the crema bolognese?)
Yesterday we could raise also some coins for the stray cats of Okinawa and for the victims of Hokkaido's earthquake. For this second cause our flea market made the amazing sum of 620 yen... I guess a bank commission for transferring the money to the Red Cross is more expensive. I'll donate the coins next Sunday to the Eisa group along Kokusai-dori that collects donations for this cause since the disaster happened.
Next year? We will see...
THANKS to the photographers-friends whose best images I stole!
