I think I spent too much time in the river yesterday, or too
much time under the air conditioning in the bus, because I woke up with a
serious cold this morning. The result, I pulled myself together enough to let
Monica know I wouldn’t be in school and then continued to pass out through a
collection of coughs and sneezes until about 11am. At which point my host
mother knocked on my door and asked if I was alive. I showed her that I was still here and we
enjoyed a slow morning breakfast prepared by our housekeeper Marta, who comes
in Mondays and Wednesdays to help with the housing duties. After breakfast my
host mother happened to have two tablets of acetaminophen and some tea ready so
it was back to bed for me this time with an extra blanket.
I got up again around 1 to my host mother asking me if I
would be ok with moving about the house a bit so that Marta could clean my room
and the house as a whole. I ended up taking a walk to a nearby central commercial that my host mother
recommended to me about a 2 blocks from the house. I ate lunch at a ceviche
place and got a cup of coffee at a café owned by her friend. I returned to the
house around 3 for some much needed descansyo
feeling much better than I had that morning.
As our time here is drawing to a close and today being the
last Monday I think it is important to write a whole post dedicated to the
wonderful person that is my host mother. I’m sure I have mentioned her in other
posts but there is nothing I can write in this blog that can fully explain how
much I appreciate everything she does and how amazing of a person she is. Her
name is Nora Delgado and she lives on the east side of Miraflores about a mile
away from El Sol. She works as a distributer and seller of olives and olive oil
from a farm outside of Lima. She is also a mother to my university aged host
brother Álvaro, and a home owner to both me and Álvaro’s girl friend who spends
multiple nights at the house a week. Our household has on occasion two animals
in it a tiny puppy and a hamster that occasionally runs around the floor in a
ball.
Some morning Nora prepares breakfast for me and other
morning it is Marta. Meanwhile dinner is always ready in the late afternoon or
night when I get home, left on the table with a note from my host mother saying
“Samuel and “Microwave”. Weekdays it is usually something simple like chicken
from the store or pasta, with the weekends being ceviche or something else
fancy. There are always fresh olives on the table along with salt, pepper, and
any kind of topping needed. On occasion Nora will eat with me and we will have
some simple small talk about eat others day and how tired we both are. The
conversations change from the current political climate of Peru to her family’s
feud over who owns portions of the olive farm, to the differences between
different countries and her past occupants as a host home. Nora works hard to
keep her family in lively hood and I can see it from the amount of small signs
of wealth that are present usually in the form electronics that belong to Álvaro.
I’ve been fighting an urge to call her Mom since day one when I asked her what
she preferred to be called but it wasn’t until today that I think she called me
hijo or son after waking up around
11. As someone who was born with two fathers the concept of a mom is very new
to me and I’ve always wanted to understand it. Nora has shown me what a perfect
mother looks like as she balances the many tasks of taking care of all the
people in her house as well as balancing all of her responsibilities. She is
also perfect because she seems to give me the same trust and treats me in the
same way that my own parents do. She constantly asks me to turn off the lights
but also lets me come and go as I please as long as I lock the door. When I ask
her where I can go to buy something she’ll give it a long hard thought and then
reply with her the best answer she knows. When I’m running late she usually
calls to ask if I want dinner laid out or not. There is no way to fully
appreciate her kindness and I hope that I get the opportunity to keep in touch
after my time here is done.
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