What If I Were a Maid in Another Culture

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I was thinking about the things in my apartment the housekeepers might find strange. I also reflected on some things I might find strange if I were a maid in another culture. (Some listed in no particular order or culture, but gleaned from years of living in South America, Africa, and Asia.) I bet the thought that you ALWAYS  must take off your shoes upon entering a house would seem needless to me, but I could understand that it would make my job easier. Finding used toilet paper in a wastebasket beside the toilet would seem so far beyond normal as to be outrageously gross and needless. I would question the closing of doors and windows in cold season. Don’t they know the heating systems have carbon monoxide that will kill you? I would compare the size and stuff in U.S. kitchens and be underwhelmed, and wonder what in the world do they do in this room, which is so purely just functional in most cultures.

Then I stopped and thought about the things that the housekeepers see in my apartment every week. The university pays for 2 ladies to come in and spend about 15 minutes changing my sheets, cleaning my bathroom, wiping down all the surfaces, and mopping the floor…..without sweeping first. ???  I wonder if they question some of the things that they find. They might ask: why do they save so much food from one day to the next, even to the point of putting it in the freezer. Don’t they know that this is a sure fire way to get food poisoning? Do they actually eat raw carrots and vegetables? Why do they insist on putting a top sheet under the duvet on the bed? What possible function does it have? Where did they hide most of the slippers that are to be by the door so that dirt is not tracked all over the house? How do they use two huge bottled water jugs per week? Do they actually use space heaters before the government turns on the central heat in mid-November? Those are really dangerous! And so on.

I do so deeply, deeply appreciate not having to do basic cleaning things every week. I have always enjoyed relating to the people helping in my home, even to the point that at times my empleadas have lived with us. It is important to provide work for local populations, and one of the easiest ways to do this is to hire maids. I used to have to work alongside maids as they came into our home. It made me feel less, I don’t know, maybe ….colonial. As I have aged I now can sit and watch them work, and not feel guilt.  I am just thankful.