I translated it loosely and explained, as she easily understood, that it had overtones of decadent luxury. I told her that since she started working for us a month ago, that’s how I felt.

Rosa is our maid. After about half a year here, I asked some neighbors if they knew of anyone who would like to clean our house once a week. They came up with Rosa, whose grandson is married to their daughter, or something like that. It might be her sister’s son who is married to their daughter.

Rosa came over and I liked her immediately. That was important. There is a woman in our neighborhood who had cleaned this house in the past, and who had asked us if she could work for us, but we don’t find her easy to be around. Rosa was different, we could tell right away.

So I showed her the house and she told me what to buy, chiefly a long string mop. We agreed on a time she would come each week. I asked what she would like us to pay her. She said firmly that she gets 35 pesos an hour. That’s about $3.20 US… I tend to round up the amount of time she’s worked to pay her a bit more. She’s here about four hours, once a week.

She is a delightful woman, full of zest, and very professional about her cleaning. She has worked for foreigners before and her Spanish is clear and easy to follow. I ask her lots of questions about Spanish vocabulary and grammar; she laughs when I call her my professor. And it’s very nice to leave the heavier cleaning to her!

We didn’t stop there. We have known all along that we would need to have someone to take care of our swimming pool and to water the yard and mow the lawn, chiefly when we’re away but perhaps at other times too. If we were lucky, it would be one person to do both pool and yard work. Emboldened by how well Rosa has been working out, we started asking around, and a young woman we know said her father would be interested. He was, so soon Roberto started working for us.

He is extremely knowledgeable about swimming pools, as he works at the local hot spring resort. But he was glad to have some extra work. He now comes over three days a week for a couple of hours each time. We got a friend’s price from him because we are friendly with his family and help them some with their English, but he does charge more than Rosa. He is very industrious and also nice to be around. Kelly was never fond of scrubbing our pool, and I don’t have the strength. We both enjoy glancing out the window from our computers as Roberto scrubs with vigor, adjusts the chemical balance just so, mows the lawn, and pulls weeds.

Peel me a grape. Oh, give me another one!

Peel Me a Grape is a post from: Mexico with Heart - Living, Traveling, and Retiring in Mexico