Dinner time.

As I sit down to write this Mama Maria is cooped up in bed with a broken wrist. After coming back from Valpo on Saturday she came home to show me an enormous cast that is dominating her entire arm. Yikes! This means that she will not be doing her usual cooking me meals, cleaning my room, and making family dinners on Sundays, at least for a little while. This must be extremely hard for her because she is used to doing everything for the three of us (Carlos her brother, her mother Alicia, and myself). She usually spends most of Sunday morning preparing a nice big dinner for the four of us, but yesterday was the first time since I have been here that she was unable to. This left her brother, Carlos, to do the work. This seemed extremely backward, and although I have not been here for very long, the machismo part of Chilean society is ever-present, especially in our house. Mama Maria does everything for Carlos from making his bed in the morning to making him dinner when he comes home from work at 9 pm.

So, yesterday Carlos was stuck in charge of making lunch, and although he did a great job it was just so interesting to see the man doing all the work and serving me just like Mama Maria usually does! He made choclo, which is corn on the cob, chicken, salads and we had some fresh watermelon for dessert. Everything was really good, almost surprisingly good for what I would have imagined! I was sitting in talking to Mama and he came in and asked how she usually prepares the lettuce for salads. Even I know how to do that! That is why I was so surprised to have such a delicious meal! The chicken was especially flavorful, and because I never saw him preparing it I began to wonder. But he did assure me that it was his mom's recipe, so I figured he had made it a time or two before. When we finished eating I decided to be a little helpful and help him clear the table. When I was bringing in the dishes to the kitchen I saw a plastic container from the grocery store, with half a rotisserie-style chicken left in it! I guess not all men can cook, but he sure did a great job of hiding it!