I can't believe how much I have come to depend on my maid (wait - maid sounds very politically incorrect so maybe I should use the far more respectable-sounding housekeeper).
Anyway, my housekeeper, hasn't turned up for the past couple of days. Apparently she's down with malaria.
I say 'apparently' because I happen to know that she's not particularly of the "tell the truth or die" way of thinking. So I've learned to take whatever she says with a grain of salt.
I caught her the other week when she tried to get me to pay her
twice in the same month. When I went to South Africa at the end of November I decided to pay her early knowing that I wouldn't be back by the 1st of Dec (which is usually her pay day). So, with only good intentions at heart, I paid her December salary at the end of Nov before I left.
I get back here and she tries to pull the 'ol "wool over the eyes" routine by pretending that I hadn't paid her yet. I might have fallen for that one but I'm the sort of person who can get pretty obsessive about keeping records (especially financial records). So I'd actually written the date that I'd paid her in my little money book. She didn't get away with that one although it's not because she didn't try!
That's why, when she mentioned she had malaria, I'm more likely to think that she's been bitten by "lazy mosquito" instead and wants to stay home. Either way, its not like I have a choice - I HAVE to believe her.
Actually, I'm okay with her not turning up when she's ill of course but what really bothered me was the fact that when I called her yesterday to see if she was okay, she assured me repeatedly that she'd be well enough to come to work today.
So, I went ahead and bravely used every pan that I had in the kitchen to cook dinner last night (I suddenly felt like cooking up a Thai meal and it required a fair bit of preparation). In anticipation of her arrival today, I did absolutely nothing about the cleaning.
The bits of food are still stuck to the pans and the plates are all dirty and dry - yuck!. I normally abhor dry, dirty dishes greeting me in the mornings and generally clean as I go but didn't this time assuming that the housekeeper would take care of it.
So, imagine my horror when I realized today that she isn't coming. I tried to call and she had infuriatingly turned her phone off. Sigh!
Sometimes I think I should have just stuck to doing everything myself without any help. At least then I'd be aware that any mess I made would be a mess I'd have to clean up myself!
