Beatriz.

Beatriz is a lovely woman. Every day, she wakes up at dawn to have my breakfast waiting at the table. It's always something different; I never know what I'm going to have. Her lunches are delicious, and usually include lots of vegatables, which I greatly appreciate. She accompanies me while I eat dinner, and patiently corrects my Spanish. She tells me about her younger days, when she used to go out dancing. She changes my sheets and washes my clothes every Monday, and hangs my intimates on the line in the room off the kitchen. She brought me tea in bed when I was sick, and didn't get too upset when she had to call the plumber to fix my toilet (apparently I was pressing the button too hard). She fed me marshmallows when my hands were busy washing the dishes. She asks how I'm doing, how my classes are going, what my weekend plans are, and she also respects my privacy. She calls ants "uncles," beause she can't remember the english word for them. When I told her I refer to her as my Cochabamba "mom," she reminded me that I only have two mothers, the one who gave birth to me, and the Virgin. She sings when she cooks. Lovely.

And these were all the things I was trying to remember about Beatriz when I thought I had Amoebas, the most common parasite contracted in cbba, which brought along horrendous stomach cramps, a fever, chills, nausea, and of course, diarrhea. I tried to remember all of these things about Beatriz when she told me the redness in my stool was probably just from the beet salad we ate two days ago. And that I couldn't possibly have a fever if my hands felt cold. And that the diarrhea was because I had two cups of coffee that day. Right.

When I finally felt good enough to pull myself out of bed in the 22nd hour of my illness, I walked over to the lab, received my analysis, and was grateful to find out that I actually had several parasites festering in my instestines, that it wasn't just beet salad, cold hands, and coffee. 24 hours after my first antibiotic, I'm feeling much better. And I still think Beatriz is lovely, even if she doesn't always know best.

Love and snow on the mountains,
K