After each performance,
time was alloted for the performers to interact with the audience—an “exchange”
as they called it. Sometimes this involved a sort of a question-and-answer
kind of thing: someone from the audience asked a question and member(s)
of the Rondalla On Wheels answered back, with the help of interpreters
(that’s my job, among of things). But words are sometimes misheard and
sometimes misunderstood altogether, and even when the interpretation is
flawless, that certain kind of bond that exists between two people conversing
is weakened or lost.
When we think
about it, ordinary, everyday conversation is not so much about getting
information through, as much as expressing one’s enthusiasm for doing the
conversation itself. I found that the most rewarding “exchange” for both
Rondalla On Wheels and their audience took place when they mingled freely,
without interpreters and other such nuisance to constructive conversation.
In this setting, much more than words were exchanged—smiles, handshakes,
names, email addresses, numbers.
