Ode to Cleaning

I spent the morning cleaning.  I spend a good hour a day (many days 2 or 3) cleaning.  It typically takes me a second to get motivated to start, but once I do I don’t stop.  I then feel extremely accomplished when I look at the finished product.  We have white tile floors and walls.  Outside has many unpaved sidewalks, dirt, and sand.  ;lkThey get dirty very quickly.  I hypothesized that if we cleaned all the floors at one time it would stop us from tracking dirt from one room to another. Michol thinks it doesn’t matter. I think she might be right.  I’m kinda second guessin my cleanin process back home now.  I don’t clean nearly as much there as I do here.  I haven’t decided if that’s cuz I just can’t see it as well or if it’s just not as dirty outside (no negative connotation implied, I literally mean dirt on the ground)

The walls that aren’t tile have just been painted.  Here it is customary for the vacating tenant to pay for the process if it’s necessary.  We’ll try to keep the walls clean, but we’ve accepted that we’ll probably have to have them painted.  I’ve killed a large number of insects on them.  I am not a bug person. I do think I’m much better about them than I was.  When we first got here, I killed everything that moved.  I’ve since decided that while God has predestined everything it probably wasn’t his intention for them to die in my apartment.  So the majority of them I let be.

It takes me about 2 1/2 hours to wash a load of clothes.  I dry them on line so I have to hang them in the day or they don’t dry.  With the move, and the store hours. Oh yeah store hours.  Here, the pace of life is much slower than the states. Almost everything shuts down between the hours of 11:30 and 2 for lunch. So like I was saying with the move and needed to go to stores on a daily basis and work around their hours, I haven’t had two straight hours to wash but I imagine that’s about how long I’ve spent on it collectively. 

In any case, I like washing my clothes by hand.  It shows me just how involved the process is that happens back home while I set the washer and go do something else.  The clothes have to (soak) wash, ring, rinse, ring, and dry.  I also appreciate all the clothes I have.  I didn’t bring very many here which is why I have to wash so often, but I didn’t really think about how much have until I had to do that process for each article of clothing.  I have mad respect for the women around the world like Esmeralda who do this on a daily basis.

Well that was my ode to cleaning.  Wish everyone who actually read this far and even everyone who didn’t make it this far J a great day!!!