House of Strong Women

My mom who I miss dearly was an incredibly strong, independent, generous, kind and intelligent woman. She raised 3 kids while holding down a full-time accounting job despite the home economics degree. For this, I appreciate being around strong women and I have really loved moving into Gladis´house. In this house, there is Mama Chaita, Gladis, Cindy who is Gladis´sister-in-law, Helga the elder daughter of 20, and Astrid the younger daughter of 15. There is also Andrea, Cindy´s daughter at age 1 as well as Sophia, Helga´s daughter at age 6 months. Their cat Ceta is even a woman. The men in the house include Sergio, Gladis´boyfriend, and of course Tio.

I switched houses last week after I caught Esmeralda using my makeup one too many times amongst many other things. Even though I rarely wear make-up at home, I brought some with me for those days when I´m feeling miserable and want to appear somewhat decent. The new students who have moved in after me are having issues as well and I learned that the previous student before me had problems with her. I think Esmeralda was trying to buy my silence by constantly giving me gifts, the last gift being a rain jacket. Gladis invited me to live with her and I readily accepted. Now, I live with my Spanish teacher who has become my host mom and I absolutely love living with this family who has become my extended family. I go out with Astrid and Helga to bars and with Gladis to the bake shop and I sometimes help cook in the kitchen. However, my cooking skills are pretty sad and so I am often better off staying out of the kitchen. Despite the awesome food in this house, I still get the munchies and so I went to the only wine and cheese bar in Xela last night. I may have been spoiled by having lived in the bay area for the past two years. However, I lowered my standards for Xela. I ended up with Monterey Jack Cheese and some table wine. I guess cheese is cheese.

The rest of the crew including Astrid met up with Carolyn, Nash and I and off we went to the Benefit party. After the Salsa music died down, Carolyn, Chrystal and I showed off our cheesy Gringo moves. We introduced the sprinkler, shopping cart and fishing line to the dance floor. I even learned how to roll the dice and bowl. Carolyn missed her manwich with Edgar and Rodrigo, but we still had a fabulous time dancing.

Today, I spent 2 hours with Mike and Alexis picking up the liquid nitrogen for wart removal at the clinic. Every Friday is wart day. The doctors burn off the warts, which seem to be common here, with the liquid nitrogen. I watched as the doctors treated a boy´s hand that seemed infested with warts. Next week, I will receive more health education training.