Stories from my Abuela

       It is a late afternoon tradition to greet my host grandmother when I get home from class. I enter at the bottom floor of the house to exchange hellos, attempt to understand what is going on in the television, but mostly we just smile at each other. One afternoon she had prepared soup for us so we were sitting at the table eating soup with large pieces of potato in it. We had run through all of our conversation topics so we were simply enjoying each others presence in silence. I focused in on eating my soup very slowly so that I wouldn't finish before her which would lead me to have sit there with nothing to distract myself with. So I started cutting my potatoes into small pieces. After about two minutes of this I looked up to see my grandmother laughing uncontrollable. Confused I gave her a look that begged for explanation. She then proceeded to mimic the clanging noise I am making with my spoon as I cut through the potatoes, which she finds this hilarious. We both laugh together at my musical meal and I spend the rest of the time focused on eating as silently as possible thus making any proceeding clang directly followed by bits of laughter.

            Later on that week I sign up for a cross fit class that is run by a fellow aspiring volunteer here. It is a partner cross fit session and the work out is written on the board, consisting of things like 100 push ups, 200 squats, 400 meters of carrying your partner back and forth in front of the training center. Needless to say it was way more intense than what I was prepared for, and we looked ridiculous to any passer by! But my partner and I took on the challenge and pushed ourselves further then probably what was healthy. Afterwards we took public transportation home instead of walking and I stumbled into the downstairs where my grandma is waiting. I fell into a chair and exhausted explained that I have just done way too much exercise and I can no longer walk. She finds this quite absurd and hilarious, and thus spends the next five minutes silently laughing to herself and sharing that fact that I can’t walk to everyone that comes into the house. Then she proceeds to offer me some juice but holds it out just far enough away from me that I have to get up to reach it. This is a struggle and I look like an old lady as I wobble over to get the cup of juice. Meanwhile my grandmother is dying of laughter on the couch as she watches the crazy gringa stumble around her house. It took three days for my body to recover from the workout!

        Today in the market she told all the vendors that I had been in Peru since I was a baby and that I was her niece making me feel pretty proud!