Mom vs.Mom

At this moment in my life I have mothers. My real mother, of course back in the states, and my mother who´s house I live in in Peru. I never compared the two before, it just never occurred to me before. But then the other day I found out how old my host mother is. I was shocked to realize she is the exact same age as my real mom, and this got me thinking. Why was it I never thought about the two of them in the same category before? Besides the mountain of differences between the two, I think the big reason is that I always viewed my host mom in more of the grandmother category than a mother category. Most likely because she is a grandmother. She has 6 grandchildren right now and one more on the way. But that doesn´t exempt her from the child-rearing category though, because she has two teenage daughters. Get this, she a daughter and granddaughter that are the same age.

My host mom also acts a lot older than she is. She walks and talks like some one who is in her late 70´s. In comparison to my real mom who goes to the gym everyday, takes luxurious vacations with her girl friends, and in general has the vigour of a 25 year old still. Comparing these two women has become a really interesting cross-cultural examination in my head (sorry mom if you´ve been reduced to little more than research). My host mom doesn´t work. Everyday she makes a huge pot of food that feeds 10 people twice. She does this every single day. There are no days that she feels tired and orders chinese take out, or leaves the fam to fend for themselves. On top of cooking, cleaning and raising a gigantic family, she is the most actively involved woman in the community. I really look up to this woman for the years of thankless work she has done. My mom on the other hand, balanced working part time, raising 3 kids and managing the house hold. My mom put in a good 25 years doing this, but now that her youngest is off to college, she enjoying much more time for herself. I don't think my host mom will ever have time for herself until it is she that needs taking care of. I plan to develop this cross cultural examination further. Perhaps in a year or so I shall write a really interesting entry about what it means to be a mom in Peru vs US. Stay tuned.