Let’s talk about Milly, Claudio’s wife. Claudio is the vineyard manager and they live in a house on the property about 20 yards from the winery, in view of everything. Their son, Yamil, is a very sweet-natured 9 year old, turning 10 in August. Milly’s my age, just a month older, yet lives an entirely different life. Claudio, who she met when she was in high school, is 37 years old and, from what I heard through the grapevine (no pun intended), got kicked out of the army after pulling some crazy stunt while driving a tank during practice. Can you imagine me married to a 37 year old military veteran and having a 10 year old son?
As my work on the winery is what one might call a leisurely respite, and Milly works half days, we have begun to have a daily mate session (the traditional Argentine drink – loose yerba mate tea that is sipped through a metal straw and passed around and around for hours), where we talk about all normal life things. Of course, being born and bred in La Consulta, she speaks zero English. This makes things fun when neither of us know the words we want to say. She has 3 brothers, all who have moved out of LC. The farthest brother is a chef in Spain, the others live in the Mendoza area. The only place she has been to besides LC is Mendoza city. This is incredible to me. They don't have a car, and buses take forever to get anywhere here, as I think I may have already explained. So she is pretty much stuck here, in this little one-stoplight town, surrounded by vineyards and the Andes.
They would love to save to buy a computer, as Yamil is always asking for one, but after explaining the reality of their finances, it just doesn’t seem possible. After the month’s groceries, Yamil’s school and English classes, the cable and gas, there is barely anything left over from Claudio’s salary, which is why Millie took up a job working at a dairy. They do get to live on the vineyard property for free, which makes it surprising that they have zero left over. What would you do if you had to pay rent I asked her? She shrugged, “work more,” she responded. She dreams of winning the lottery, visiting the States, of buying a car, or the computer for Yamil. If she won the lottery, she would build homes for the elderly and poor children, as well as a local hospital, as there is a lack of doctors in the area. No pediatricians apparently. The Good Samaritan in me wants to buy her a ticket to Santiago for a weekend, send Yamil to the States to learn English, buy her something, anything new and decadent! Of course, I realize I am far from the first person to experience such stark cultural differences and want to do something to help.
I think the mate sessions are also special because the only other person at her job to is a 60 year old woman who she said doesn’t talk to her very much. So she has her husband and son, the vineyard staff and then this one coworker. Her parents live on the other side of the Plaza, but since they don’t have a car, it’s a bit far to get to she says. About 25 blocks. When she goes to the supermarket, she has to take a cab home, again, since they don’t have a car. But I think in cases like this, not knowing what you don’t have is a kind of bliss. It would be worse if she had had all these things and it was taken away… right?
So in addition to the mate, out comes the food. She introduced me to dulce de batata, a sweet potato gelatin that has a very nice vanilla flavor that you would eat with cheese or by itself. Then came the vanilla lady finger like cookies she will make Claudio’s birthday cake with. Then a nougat and peanut candy bar, kind of like a Nutty Buddy but with white chocolate. I told her I couldn’t eat everything because I wouldn’t fit in my pants. Oh no, this won’t make you fat! she said. Sure.
So when Milly and Yamil asked me what peanut butter was (they had heard a lot about it in American movies), I of course had to have them taste it! Fortunately my mom and Robin had kindly brought me a jar of Peanut Butter and Co. chunky peanut butter. I am still working on polishing off my Trader Joe’s jar that I had brought with me back in January (hadn’t craved it until recently), so I brought my one full jar of PB to share with them. What kind of American would I be if I horded my peanut butter? First I had them try it with just bread. Then with Milly's homemade peach jam and bread. They agreed it was better with the jam and it was very delicious, but they barely ate more than two bites! Apparently they don’t eat a lot of peanuts down here and it makes their stomachs “caliente.” I told them I had never heard of that, but that I was very used to eating it and could eat it all day. No caliente stomach for me. They did want to keep the jar but I compromised and gave them half. No way was I parting with the whole thing! They also asked about marshmallows, which I was surprised by because I had seen them in Mendoza as well as Patagonian Chile, where I made the Brits some s’mores the one night while camping. I must find some in BsAs when I go next week and bring them back.
I also have taken to teaching them a bit of English, starting with numbers and colors, which they already know somewhat. Then we moved on to body parts and things around the house. The most difficult thing is pronunciation. “Th”and words ending in “d” and “r” stick out. (My Spanish is increasingly getting better with each round of mate). The only references they have, I realized, are whatever B-movies and TV shows come through the Argentine cable and this little workbook Yamil got from his school, that has very dumbed down English that is borderline incorrect. Lots of Disney pictures and other random storylines that I think may make the language even more difficult. So I brought over my Spanish-English dictionary since they don't have one, and I barely use it. If I need to look something up, I use Google Translate (as I mentioned, they don't have a computer, so this is the least I can do).
I’ve also started drinking mate with Leo, the junior winemaker who I shadow around when I’m not writing a blog, taking pictures around the winery, or talking with Millie. Slowly becoming a mate addict between Leo and Millie. They’ve got me hooked on the sweet version. When I only knew about the bitter, no-sugar version, I was better off because I could take it or leave it. Now I’ve come to enjoy and almost crave the caffeinated tradition, especially as the temperature starts to drop with the change of seasons.
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