Spring Cleaning

Tuesday June 28, 2010

Teodoro told me yesterday that his family will be coming for a visit later in the week. He was rather vague on the details (as usual) but apparently the adults and any children who are old enough will be heading further up the mountain to find work harvesting coffee and the youngins will stay behind at the Casa del Cafe. We also will be hosting an as-of-yet undetermined number of people (Teo says 30 but I'm skeptical) all weekend for a workshop on improving coffee production methods to enhance marketability.

In light of our expected visitors we've spent the last two days getting everything here in tip-top shape. I am by now all too familiar with the Spanish words for “broom” (which out here incidentally doubles as a mop), escoba, and “squeegee on a long stick,” goma, as together they have received nearly 100% of my attention for two days running. What's the best way to clean infrequently used bedrooms in the middle of the jungle, you might ask? Remove everything absorbent and tenaciously spray down anything that remains with a massive hose, of course. Herein lies the necessity of a “squeegee on a long stick.” My tasks were as follows: 1. Observe pre-wash soaking of ceiling, walls, floor, and furniture. 2. Run in with matted-down plastic green escoba and ferociously scrub ceiling, walls, floor, and furniture clear of all bugs, stains, and debris. 3. Quickly exit as wash cycle commences without warning. 4. Observe wash cycle from safe distance. 5. Clean shoes. 6. Run to far side of room with goma and ATTACK three inches of standing water with the intensity of a small Hispanic man.

Task number 6 was hands-down my favorite; not because I enjoyed it really, but rather because if at any point my ATTACK was not intense enough to generate foot-tall waves of bug-filled water that completely soaked my only pair of shoes, I was scolded in Spanish and given yet another demonstration of proper goma technique.

Stupid Gringa...don't they teach you these things in your fancy American universities...?