Today "Cinco de Mayo Festival" was held in our community center where lots of fun things always happened. We played Mariachi and performed the traditional folk dance of Mexico on the stage. Mrs. Malchovich made beautiful Mexican costumes for us, and her sister, Sylvia, helped Mrs. Malchovich sew our dresses. 
 
We had been practicing for this for three weeks.
Don resisted getting involved in this in the beginning, saying that Poncho wouldn't go with him because he was more like "Hollywood person", not "Mariachi person". But once he saw Sylvia, he volunteered to be a stage director and took charge in our performance. Standing in front of lots of neighbors, we all were nervous on the stage. In the end, our performance was applauded and we received standing ovations from the audience. 

 

Sylvia is visiting Mrs.Malchovich during spring. She is from somewhere far where people walk fast, bump into each other and always ignore the traffic lights.

 

"You were very good on the stage, Sylvia. A good

dancer."  Getting off the stage, I gave her thumbs up.   
"Thank you. Actually this is what I do in New York. I am a theater actress." smiled Sylvia.
"Theater? Do you have a community center like ours in your neighborhood?"
I was surprised because I thought our neighborhood was the only one that had a community center with the stage and I was very proud of it.
"Yes, I do, but my theaters are not a community center. It's a little different." said Sylvia.
"How different?" I asked.
"Those are not for a community purpose. They are........"

Sylvia was trying to look for the right words.
"Is the stage bigger? Who is on the stage?" I asked.
"It's bigger and they are professional actors, actresses and dancers." said Sylvia.

But after she said that, she smiled at me and patted my back.
"Today your community center gave me the same great feeling I always get from my theaters. I had a wonderful time with you guys on the stage. Such a wonderful place to be."

"Then we should do this again. I felt so good being on the stage with you, too."
I was so happy to hear Silvia liked our community center and enjoyed being on the stage with us.
 
I like Sylvia. I wish she would move to our neighborhood permanently, so we can be a good friend. I bet Don feels the same way. I had good time with them today.