housekeepers r us

If you're not an expat, don't read this. It may make you physically ill and I don't want you to ruin your computer.

One of the perks of living as an expat in many places around the world is that you can afford a housekeeper.

And having a housekeeper is a marvelous thing.

I'm not talking about a cleaning service that comes in once a week where you still have to clean up during the week and then you have to clean up before the cleaner gets to your house. I'm talking about a full-service, full-time housekeeper.

We are not, in fact, hiring a full-time housekeeper, which in Colombia means somebody who works in your home 6 days a week. If we had a bunch of children or a baby, that might be more inviting. But we're trying to instill in Mac that he needs to make up his bed every morning and pick up his toys and put his dirty clothes in the phantom dirty clothes basket, and if we had somebody 6 days a week, even I'd stop making my bed and picking up my toys.

So we're going to "rough it" and go for somebody 3 days a week. In this business, and especially during this summer transition season, there are always housekeepers looking for work. We have an interview set up for tonight for a woman that a friend recommended, and then I took the initiative to call another woman on my own this afternoon. She said she could come over immediately. I had planned to see if she could come over tomorrow night when Jimmy was home (with his good espanol), but she wanted to strike while the iron was hot, so I told her to come. Which meant that Mac and I had to quick-clean to make it look like we weren't slobs.

Her name is Ruth and she's a little dynamo packed into about 5 feet and maybe 90 pounds. She's worked for embassy people for a long time and she can do it all: she cleans, does laundry, irons, cooks, shops, runs errands, pays bills. You name it, she can do it. She also agreed to stay late on Wednesday nights so Jimmy and I can resume our weekly date night which we had and loved in Brasilia. She's her in 40s, married, with two children (one is 22 and is a systems engineer and the other is 12 and in school). She is also going to university at night to study child psychology. Previous embassy families have left her with their children while the parents went off on vacation. She seems perfect - even Mac said he liked her.

If you're not an expat and you're still reading this, this is your final warning to stop reading.

Guess how much Ruth charges for her services?

Less than $17 for an 8-hour day.

The woman we're interviewing tonight had better come prepared to impress because Mac and I are pretty much in love with Ruth. And if we vote for Ruth, Jimmy's going to vote for Ruth, too.

P.S. If we hire Ruth, she can start on Wednesday. Blessed hallelujah!