I love my mom and my mom-in-law…they are mothers! Mothers are so important and that goes just as much for homestay mothers as any other. I have had three homestay mothers.
Sidenia …just about the sweetest woman I could have asked for. She took care of me, taught me Spanish, how to dance merengue and helped me gain about twenty pounds while in the DR. She was a dream of a homestay mom.
Audelia…yikes! She didn’t tell her husband that she had consented to have a gringa stay in her house. She would leave without warning and lock everything but my room for days at a time (did I mention I was in rural Mexico and had no restaurant access). When she was around she would get angry if I ate with a student or if I left to go teach my students. She would peep on my through a hole in the wall. She would complain about how poor she was (it was true…she was very poor) all the time – I always felt like she was trying to manipulate me into giving her more… To her credit she was very pregnant and her husband left shortly after my arrival to the states. Now that I have been pregnant – I too probably would have left for the city (oh running water how I love thee.) Anyway, She left much to be desired in terms of a homestay mom.
Comfort …the jury is still out. She watched Thomas for Seth and I …that is a plus. She has a great laugh. She is charging an excessive amount. She is fun to chat with. She turned the house into a hostel…with only two-day’s notice(while this is amazing – I would categorize it as a con). She has tons of parenting advice (note this is a pro and con at the same time). She dances and sings with us when we play guitar. She too complains a lot about cost of everything and always points out how much the home improvements she is undertaking cost…reminding us that they are all for us. So, I am still unsure about how to rate her as a homestay mom…but she is a great keeper when we play soccer with Nana/Prince and Linda/Teria
3 comments:
I thought it was really interesting to read about all your different "mothers" and I'll be curious to know the final verdict on your current mom :-).
I think it's hard for (much) lower income people to not resent anyone from the US--because they assume every one of us is rolling in dough. While we are rolling in something--opportunities--it's hard to convince them we're not millionaires on the sly. And thus, it's easy for them to resent it. I think. I'm philosophizing with no proof. Good ol' Audelia.
That last comment was not meant to imply that everyone out of the US is low income, and everyone in the US is high income.
Post a Comment