It took me a month to answer. The girl at the other end was a revelation. Martha made me see my country, my family, myself differently. Central Americans assume everyone in the United States is like a character on TV, she explained. You don't have to work real hard to have everything you want.
People have sex like crazy.
You buy all the designer clothes and have a big house. They think everything down below the United States is South America. It's like I don't exist. She exists, all right, because sometimes, being here hurts. Learning a new language, taking four classes a day in that language, gives her headaches.