FALLING IN LOVE WITH A SOUP KITCHEN

                                                       


We spent all Friday afternoon at Mario's soup kitchen.
We sat at one of the long eating tables and talked. 


Carmine talked on and on about everything that happened in
her life since 1953.  
Beanie and I thought she was boring until we saw how happy
Mario was listening to her intently. He always did love her
bubbly personality.


We told him about meeting his namesake, Mario A. and other
Mendozas in Buenos Aires; about becoming friends with Pepe at
the Estancia Peres. I said, "Pepe still thinks you are his hero and idol."



Then Carmine said that Pepe had told us about the the day Mario was arrested. "Mario, we care about you. We want to
know what happened, but if it is too painful..."


Mario interrupted. "For 21 years I have been simply ZEEE.
I have deliberately blocked from my memory the things that
happened when I was in prison. But I can remember the
night I escaped.
                  
"One night the guards stripped and drugged a group of prisoners, and chained them together.
 I understood they planned to fly them out over the Atlantic
Ocean and dump the load there.


 "I only pretended to swallow the drug. 
 It was dark and there was confusion.
 No one noticed that I slid myself away from the group
before the guards got to me.


"I don't know who rescued me. But a few days later I awoke in
this very building. I had a high fever and was in a lot of pain.


A sweet lady was taking care of me. I smelled a wonderful
aroma of soup being made somewhere nearby.


My nurse brought me a bowl of chicken soup. I will never forget
how wonderful it was.  But the more I came
to myself, I found I wanted to die. I could never be a gaucho
again. My legs couldn't ride on a horse. I am blind in one eye.
I saw no point in being alive.


"In time I grew stronger and went outside using a cane. 
I looked around the dreary neighborhood. 
Then I saw chalk paintings and poetry on the building walls.
 Who did these? 
I asked around and learned they were all done by a strange
man who wanted to brighten and inspire the lives of the people
who lived in the slums. CACHILO. 


I wanted to meet him. I finally saw him painting one day and 
talked with him a little while. Not long.  But my life was never
the same after that day. 
I wanted to live --and live like Cachilo, helping others.
I wanted to work at the soup kitchen and help make it into
something that would brighten lives. We would see each other
and wave. But after about a year he died on the sidewalk near here. Here is his picture on the wall. I don't know about his
religion or his politics. Don't care. Meeting him saved my life."
I have no papers. Legally I don't exist. But I am ALIVE!"


                                   
It was time to serve the evening meal. Little children who were
sitting  on the curb came inside, calling ZEEE, ZEEE, ZEEE!"  They hugged him and pulled on his white hair.


We helped serve. Then we told Mario we would see him again
tomorrow before our plane left for home.


We caught a cab back to the bed and breakfast hotel.
*****************************************************
When we arrived, suddenly Carmine said, "I don't want to go
home now. I want to stay on awhile and help in the soup
kitchen."


"I don't understand you, Carmine. When is the last time you
helped in a soup kitchen in Memphis?" I whined.


"I don't care. I don't feel too old to help here; I feel useful and
now I don't see Mario as my first sweetheart, but as a true
friend I want to help."


Beanie joined in. "Me too. I want to stay too. At least until
Christmas. You have someone waiting for you at home, Annie
We are widows who are going home to empty houses."


"Okay, okay. You make sense. But please don't sleep on hard
cots down there.  Sleep here every night, where you can have 
good rest. We can prepay the room through the Monopoly charge card and get plane tickets now for when you
 come home around Christmas! Also, Ben can arrange
 for the hotel shuttle to take you down there in the mornings
 and bring you back in the evenings. Settled? Whew!"
                                        
Carmine made this trip to feel young for a little while, and she
does seem younger, I admit. She's fallen in love with a soup
kitchen! 
*****************************************************
SATURDAY MORNING
Today I will go with the others down to the soup kitchen to
help out. Then I will fly overnight back to Memphis. I wonder
if Mario will ever contact his relatives or Pepe. He
 obviously is enjoying his Memphis friends. I am so proud of
both Carmine and Beanie.  I will miss them!

*************************************************
SATURDAY EVENING
Before I board the plane, I am thinking of what a great trip
this has been--one I will never forget. Carmine and Beanie
will call every day, and I will enjoy hearing what's going on.
For 78 yr old ladies we have done well. We found the treasure.
And finding a treasure is no small thing.
I take leave of you now.       FAIT  ACOMPLI   


THANKS TO MPA (who helped every day.)                                               LOVE, annie      


                                                                                            1953
 1953              
                                                   
*************************************************