The Brothers

I live with Susana, who is 37, her father Charlie aka Papito, and her 3 sons Cesar, Gabriel, and Mario, ages 11, 12, and 6 respectively (left to right in photo). The husband Cesar works in Lima and visits every other weekend. It is a very common thing here in Peru for the fathers to work in another city or country due to the potential earnings in other areas. Susana is the ama de casa (housewife), she spends her morning yelling at the boys to get out of bed, ironing their clothes, making breakfast (which is always light; bread with butter, cheese, or patea), trying to get them out the door on time, cleaning dishes and the house, doing laundry, grocery shopping, and constantly doing something throughout the day because really her work is never done. Not having her husband around to reinforce her words to her sons definitely has to be a difficult thing. They get away with as much as they can and have perfected selective hearing. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the boys, their energy is great, they are bright and full of life, I just try to do my best now to lay down some rules and to get on them about doing their homework and listening to their mom since I have established relationships with them. Sometimes I will track them down upstairs (where the mother and sons stay while I sleep downstairs) and will escort them to the kitchen when they are pretending not to hear their mother yelling for them. I’m not trying to be their dad, but I definitely see the need for another adult male figure in the house to keep them on track and reminding them of what’s important. I am very happy with my living situation. From the first day on I have felt extremely comfortable with my family here. I feel like my personality compliments theirs as well and we are very open with each other about everything. Well except for religion, of which I was asked if I believed in Dios in the first conversation I had with Susana. 95% of the population here is Catholic, so one’s religious beliefs will be closely scrutinized. I responded with a yes, as to not freak them out, and explained that my beliefs are a little different then theirs but that I did not wish to discuss such a touchy subject as religion since I felt that I did not have an extensive enough vocabulary to correctly convey my beliefs. This seemed like a sufficient answer, and afterwards I went outside and breathed a sigh of relief for my proper response when I noticed that we live next door to a church.