Hola! That means hello in this new language I´m forced to speak on a daily basis, yet still find the time to speak excessive amounts of english with fellow volunteers.
Some of you have asked what akwardness I was referring to in my last entry. That would be the daily interactions with people in broken spanish, my inability to know the local customs such as not letting guys walk me home (that´s a whole other story), or not knowing what to do when I arrive home. That should be simple, right? Get home...then what? When you live with a host family, things are different. I walk in to the patio area, and think, ¨Should I go straight to my room? Should I go into the living room? Should I go upstairs to see if my mom is in the kitchen, ready to feed me something? Do I have to go to the bathroom? And if so, do I use the closer downstairs bathroom with only a curtain for privacy, or walk upstairs, through the store front, through my parent´s master bedroom, probably to be stopped for an akward conversation?¨
Let´s choose an option. So perhaps I sit down in the kitchen for a glass of yogurt (it´s that delicious drinkable kind) and through the window there is a person tapping on the window asking for something from the store front. Crap. Where´s mom?
In reality, this has only happened twice. I had to get up and tell this random customer that the señora (my mom) wasn´t there to sell her anything. She wants to buy something, but I have no idea how much to charge, nor have the authorization to do so. And this is all happening in spanish.
Another scenario: I return from a long day of PC training only to realize I left my tupperware at the Training Center. Crap. I try to explain this to my mom, who has a pensive look on her face as she is trying to come up with a solution to this dilemma. Perhaps something like sandwiches that can be carried in a bag? Yes, very good. Or the time I walked into the kitchen at 6:30am to explain (in spanish, remember?) that I forgot to tell her that class wasn´t being held here like I thought. It was moved to the Training Center, so I´d have to bring my lunch with me. In 30 minutes. Another thought-filled look on her face, then a solution. She whips something up while I´m taking my refreshing (read: cold) shower, and I walk into the kitchen to see a pyramid of tupperware waiting for me. And next to that is hot breakfast that she simultaneously prepared. This woman is amazing.
Back to akward. All these scenarios bring akwardness. Hey ¨mom,¨ hi. I´m 28 and left my tupperware at school today. Hi mom, what´s up? Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you I need breakfast and lunch ready and waiting in 30 minutes. From scratch. There are no microwavable meals here. Even beans have to be soaked. Let me fly out the door, late for training again, and mama will assure me to leave my dishes for her to wash. ¨Are you sure?¨ I ask her. Yes, of course she tells me, giving me a kiss and hug and telling me to grab some fruit downstairs on my way out the door. One last thing...I left a bag of dirty laundry for you. You don´t have to get to it right away, really. Mama and I seem to have an understanding that she will only wash it when she has time. Okay, good. Finally I don´t feel guilty that I´m throwing all this extra work on her at the last minute. Phew. Hours later I return home, ready to eat. Lo and behold dinner is ready whenever I´m ready. She asks where I´m going out tonight. Not "if" but "when." She´s not asking in a controlling, ¨Why do you go out every night?¨ kind of way. But rather, in a ¨Make sure to be careful and don´t go out alone, and if you are still hungry, I can feed you more right now, bring your jacket¨ kind of way. Spectacular. Oh yeah, my laundry is hanging to dry. She somehow squeezed that in too.
Switching themes now...on Sunday I went to a place called ¨Caral,¨ which are the ruins from the oldest civilization in the Americas. Artifacts were carbon dated back to 3,000 B.C. That´s 5,000 years ago. The ruins were pretty intact as far as I´m concerned. They were covered in sand and just recently discovered in 1994. There are 6 pyramids, foundations of living spaces, sun dials, an ampitheatre.
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