Another Country, Another Family

So far I have continued to have excellent luck with host families.  I also haven’t made any friends with native English speaking students.  The school I attend is small and I appear to be the only afternoon student.  I also live somewhat away from the trendy gringo area around plaza de armas.  It is amazing how people just open up their home and their lives for strangers in this homestay language school paradigm.  It is a voyeuristic journey.  I just hang out in the living room a lot and talk to the kids, try to follow the adults talking and they make frequent attempt to engage me with my limited Spanish.  I go shopping with them and to office Christmas parties and play soccer with the father and his neighborhood buddies. 

I must say that while I snowboard at 11,000 feet, playing soccer at 11,000 feet is another story.  I had to slow down after 15 minutes and only lasted around 50 minutes.  Of course I play soccer (futbal) a few times a decade so I was limited in cardiovascular and footwork ability.  Team sports are great though, you try harder not to be “that guy” that lags everyone else in the game.  The same applies in bike riding, which is why I tend to ride with people at least 20 years older than myself.

But it is amazing how quickly you fell a part of the household.  I even felt a little guilty I didn’t make the 6 year old daughters Christmas paegent.  The afternoon class goes from 3-7PM.  Households are different here as well.  The kids just have a longer leash than American kids do.  It may have been my limited Spanish, but I found myself alone at the house one day when the 2 year old started crying.  I knew that mom had gone out, but so I had I for a couple quick errands.  But, with aunts and uncles in the same complex within shouting distance I suppose it isn’t as big a deal to leave a kid napping at the house for a while.  You also see moms rushing into the street after kids in the states, but there just seems to be more of it here in Peru.  Perhaps these kids will grow up with a better sense of self reliance than their American peers.  I could just imagine workers at an American Christmas party suing emotional damage because the company invited the kids to party, gave them presents, but didn’t provide child care to keep them out of the street.

I suppose since I have earned some street cred as a responsible adult as they have mentioned since that they will be out and could I listen for the kids upstairs, which turned out to require a small excursion when the power went out and the DVD she was watching, along with lights went off all around.  But this family is highly functional.  They laugh a lot and in general just seem to enjoy themselves most of the time.  I also saw dad checking out mom’s ass as she bent over to pick something up.  Good signs for this family abound.