Tough old ladies

I have to give a shout out to my co-accompanier, Mary Kay. She might not want me to tell the world how old she is but she is in her 70s. She travels all the time and is a pretty incredible person. First of all she is here. We stay in houses without air conditioning and it is hot and humid. Hot and humid in the way that you are always a little sweaty. And this is coming from someone who sweats very little. In our last homestay we did not even have a real bathroom. There was a toilet that did not flush, you have to pour water in the basin so you did not waste water if there is only urine in the toilet. There was no shower, we took bucket baths. Honestly, I love bucket baths but if you have never done it, it is something to get used to. Then our toilet got clogged up. It was an incredibly old house and the plumbing is really old. Our host told us it happens every now and again and you can't use the toilet until it fixes itself. How it fixes itself, I am still unsure. So we spent an afternoon peeing in the "shower" room. Even this was new for me. She never complained, only expressed how bad she felt for our host because he must be embarrassed. I expected some complaining at peeing in the shower but she was a trooper.

She is also incredibly kind and generous. She always wants to make sure everyone is taken care of. She has a knack of understanding what people need. When we were in the airport she could tell there was an anxious lady in line behind us and while I would have run away we waited for her through security and sat with her at the gate. This lady was crazy, and she was so patient and kind. Then there was a lady at a church service who told us her husband had just died and she was still so sad about it. She got a little teary and I never know what to say. Mary Kay just gave that lady a big hug and she just cried and cried. What she needed was someone to hug her. She only speaks a tiny bit of Spanish but manages to communicate very well. She also puts up with me. Sometimes I forget she does not understand Spanish and I forget to translate for her. She is so patient and just tells me she does not expect me to translate everything. I find her pretty impressive.