My mission to bring good vibes through colorful kindness rocks that I carried out this weekend, has left good experiences. 😜
Friday afternoon we arrived at our destination and immediately set out to make the most of the short time we had.
The afternoon was sunny even though it was already past 5 o'clock. The water was quite cold for my taste and there was a little swell, but nothing that prevented us from fully enjoying the breeze, the smell and the beauty of the sea.
As I didn't want to bathe I took the opportunity to walk along the shore of the beach and start my mission. 😁
The first rocks of kindness were left on the sand. A little girl found a smiley face, I asked her mom for permission, after explaining the whole rock thing, to take a picture of her little girl's hand with the face in her hand (to which the mother agreed...without much desire). I continued on my way a little distressed...the first experience had not been a very pleasant one. 😔
Further on I find a young girl drawing in the sand (this and other artistic creations will be the reason for a different post 🤭). Her enthusiasm led me to break my plan and give her 3 of my little rocks. A lot of words (in German) loaded with emotion came out of her mouth, I didn't understand anything 😂, but it wasn't necessary...her face said it all 😊. She understood perfectly, she knew from my gestures and bad English, that it was a gift full of good energies. At the end, one word in perfect Spanish.... "Gracias". This time I went on my way very happy.
I left others roks in the sand, I didn't know their destination, but I assumed they had a nice one.
The next day I went for a walk. This time the rocks were left on the small walls of the avenue, or on restaurant tables. On bus stop benches, on window sills. Anywhere they could be seen. From 13th Street to 52nd Street I scattered them all. Some in the morning and some in the afternoon hours.
Just like the day before, most of them I didn't know their destination.
In a coffee shop where I left some on the tables, an English lady stopped to see what I was photographing. I gave her a violet with small yellow flowers, explained to her, as best I could and knew in my very bad English, what it consisted of. She thanked me, evidently excited, like the German girl the day before.
The most unlikely story I had was with a group of young people. On my way back to the lodge I see that on the bench of a bus stop, where I had left some rocks just minutes before, there were some boys sitting. I approached them and asked them if they had seen 3 colored stones that were on the bench.
The boys were speechless and looked at each other (this scene was worthy of recording 🤣). Suddenly, one points to the floor and tells me, they are over there, we threw them away because we thought it was "witchcraft" 🙄😳. Whaaat??? I was dumbfounded 😱. I explained to them all about the "kindness rocks". I asked them why they hadn't simply thought they were decorated stones. The guys' answer: that's just "weird"...usually what you find out there is almost always witchcraft. Anyway...idiosyncrasy problems🤔...maybe. 😆
Finally the situation became hilarious. The boys apologized to me, picked up the rocks, and the others asked me for one for luck on their college entrance exams. It was a group of twelfth graders returning from a math review and waiting for a bus home.
I placed one in the hands of each of them with all the kindness in the world and wishing from the bottom of my soul that it would serve as a charm for their exams.
This experience has been enriching, thank you again @mipiano. 🤗
PS: I completely forgot that Varadero is a fine sand beach. In all the extension I walked I didn't find a single pebble 😆, just some pieces of coral that I hope will be of some use to me.