Lydia and I love to bake together. She's such a great helper. And sometimes she even helps our family's helper! Here she is making chapati with Teresa, our newly hired house-helper. (Lydia is using blue play-doh).
It's almost a cultural mandate here to have a house-helper at least (if not a driver, cook, gardener, etc). If we choose not to hire a woman to clean our home it would appear that we are trying to hide something. Which we are not. Plus, you would have the added malady of my house-work driven insanity!
Teresa comes two hours a day to sweep and mop (which must be done practically every day due to the dust that settles after having the windows open all the time...we have no a/c), clean bathrooms, do the dishes and two days a week she cooks for us! So, yes, we have a maid. And I feel the need to justify this. Because, well, I'm American and having house-helpers is just not for people of my uh, status. (I tried to explain this to Teresa. She just looked at me with an expression that said "Americans are crazy." Perhaps we are.)
Basically, having Teresa do some of the work frees me to actually play with our kids, go to the market, update this blog. I still do far more housework than I did in the States. Her cooking twice a week gives us a taste of national food (albeit very toned down on the spices) and I can watch and learn. I ask her so many questions! She laughs when I jump when she uses the pressure cooker. While she cooks, I prep veggies and while she washes dishes I dirty more by baking bread or lasagna. While she mops I read Lydia a book on our bed or run down to the banana cart.
Of course, it's more about the work getting done. It's about the relationship we are building. We have invited Teresa into our home every afternoon. Yes, to work...but also to be an audience to Lydia's impromptu dance recitals, to hold Molly while I light the oven, to taste cookies I just baked, to ask the word for "monkey" or "little princess" (which she has taken to calling the girls...Chata Rani).
Yesterday, Teresa's husband fell ill and is in the hospital. Most likely from impure water. I prayed for him with her. She cried. I hugged her. It felt awkward and right at the same time. We asked her to leave work and go see him. She protested, but soon heeded and went to be with her family.
She is my closest national friend. And my only employee. A tension and bond that is interesting and (I pray) will be used for the glory of God.
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