quote AE She shows up about 8 a.m., by which time we've already had our coffee. Sometimes she makes breakfast, sometimes I do. She washes the dishes and pots. Then she washes all the floors in the house, adding bleach to the water in addition to the cleaner, to "keep mice and bugs away", then rinses all the floors. Makes the bed, dusts, etc. We discuss what our luncheon meal will be, and she starts cooking the beans. The bathroom is cleaned and sanitized every day. She makes and serves lunch to us and to whoever else shows up [neighbor, caretaker, etc.]. I like to cook, so sometimes I make the main meal. After eating she cleans up the kitchen thoroughly, and insists she has to rewash the floors "because there might be some oil splatter on the floors that will attract bugs/mice". Takes all the trash out to be burned [no trash pick up in the campo]. She sweeps outside several times a day. Changes the sheets frequently.
For me the real luxury is the floors. I cannot get the piso mojado stuff down. When I mop with the cotton swapes it looks like an 8 year old has finger painted the floor.
When I first came here I was in a little aparthotel in LT and decided to do without the daily cleaning service.
Within a week, I was sitting at the table and my arm started to burn. I looked down on the floor and saw the annual convention of fire ants. When enough of them clump together, their venom transports through the air so that my arm above the table was burning. Do not know why my leg was not. And perhaps I am wrong about the fire ants.
But I am not one of these women who says that I can do the housework better. I think that Dominicans are brilliant cleaners.
This may be why the first words of Spanish that any NYer learns are Piso Mojado
