Do you like broccoli?

Tuesday was another day of making it count- and another day of no Anabel/hellion 1st graders!  I got a lot accomplished and was feeling productive and semi-successful in this chaos that is Mexican public education.  

I got home for lunch, and Mamá Alma asked me if I liked broccoli.  I wanted to kiss her.  I LOVE broccoli and there is a shortage in Mexico it seems.  The one time I bought it here it was so limp and tasteless I couldn't bring myself to buy it again.  She had made a vegetable soup with more or less meatballs.  They had rice mixed in.  I really enjoyed the soup.  She hasn't made anything yet that I haven't absolutely loved!

Before I sat down for lunch, I remembered that I had wanted to pay rent for March, but hadn't had a moment with Alma or her mom when no one else was around.

I ran upstairs and grabbed 1500 pesos.  In correlation with my happiness, I would pay the 3000 I was paying before, but most people I had talked to said 1500 was still too much.  I wanted to show my appreciation, but also pay for all the food, water, and electricity I would consume.

As I sat down, I told her that I wanted to pay rent for the month.  For the second time, she looked at me like I was crazy and said no.  I explained that I'd be eating, drinking, living, etc and wanted to cover my costs.  She was having none of it, so I just set my 3 500 peso bills on the table.  We had a nice lunch and great conversation (Alma had lots of work to do, but also didn't like what we were having, so she stayed at work for lunch!).  She's a really sweet soul and I love spending time with her.

As I got up to clean my dishes and go back upstairs, she said, "Now take that money with you."  I started in again about how I was using all their stuff and needed to pay for it.  I hope I wasn't offending, but she finally offered, "If it makes you feel better, just leave me a little bit," and she pulled apart one of the bills.  She pushed the other two in my direction on the table.  As she turned back around to wash the dishes, I added one more of the bills to the collection and made my way upstairs.  I felt much better having paid something.  The Mexican culture is such that you give/share what you have and don't think twice about it.  However, my American culture requires that I at least cover what I'm spending of their resources.  I'm going to be here for four months for crying out loud!  I can't mooch off them for that long!  I had a hard enough time mooching for the ten days in February.