Wednesday

Wednesday is the day Helen comes. Helen is my house-helper - I guess in America you would say "maid" but the literal translation is house helper here, so that's what we say. :)

Please don't freak out that I have house help. Some people think "I can't afford house help, you shouldn't be able to either." Other people think "If you can afford to have house help, then you're probably paying them horribly unethical wages." So, in defense of myself, we would never be able to afford house help in America, and I don't expect to have a maid for the rest of my life. Yes, we do pay her a ridiculously low amount, which makes it possible for us to have house help, BUT we pay her above "minimum wage" she would get working elsewhere. If we were to pay her way more, then we would mess with the economy and her ability/desire to work for a "normal" wage once we're out of the picture. So we try to look for other ways to "help" without paying her - we feed her when she's working; we give her money for medicine if she or anyone in her family is sick, and we look for other ways to help her and her family out - nice Christmas toys for the kids, extra bags of rice and oil just as a "bonus" - in other words, she gets lots of perks.

The culture here is set up much more as a caste system than in America and if we didn't employ house help, we would look really stingy to the locals - meaning we aren't willing to support the local economy and hire local people. I didn't really understand that until we were living on our previous island and I visited the home of our first house helper - she basically lived in a dirt shack with her drunk husband and two little kids. Her job working for us was the first work either she or her husband had had in over a year - and us paying enough for them to eat every month plus paying her girls' school fees, made a huge difference in her life. What would she have done, uneducated, with no training, had someone "rich and white" not asked her to come and fold their clothes and wash dishes?

So we have house help.

Anyways, I digress. Helen only comes once a week - on Wednesdays. I'm trying to manage as much of the workload of life here without help, so that I'm ready if we ever get to a place where we can't have help, but it is SO nice to have some help. Mainly what Helen does is wash dishes, mop, wash dishes, wash the sheets and towels, and wash more dishes. :) On Wednesdays, because she's here, I bake. and bake. and bake. and bake....

On a typical Wednesday I will make granola, quick breaks, yogurt, iced tea, and whatever else I need for the week. Then I just throw all the dishes in the sink and Helen stands there and washes them - SUCH a blessing! Today I spent all day mashing and bagging the pumpkin from yesterday. Last week I juiced 20 lemons to make lemonade concentrate. I ALWAYS make granola... there are very few breakfast options and of the few packages cereals available, all of the first ingredients are "sugar" or "chocolate." :) So we (and all the other ex-pats in town) eat TONS of granola. It's always a good topic of conversation between women here - the latest granola recipe and granola making techniques. :) I've seen some good recipes on the Internet - but they usually are way too small for our family - we go through about 18 cups of oatmeal for granola in a week. (So good care package idea for us is some kind of fun dried fruits or nuts that will make the granola more interesting - we only get raisins and peanuts here).

You can pray for us as oatmeal has been out at the grocery stores here in town for over a month and my emergency stash is gone... so getting REALLY creative with the breakfasts, but at least I didn't have to make granola today. :)

My other favorite thing Helen does each week is cut pineapples.

I hate cutting pineapple.

I REALLY hate cutting pineapple.

I'm not sure why.... the pineapples here are way better than anything you get in America, but the pokey-thorn things on them cut my fingers every time. Plus you have to cut them in this special spiral shape to get all the deep thorns out. I don't have the patience for it. So I always have 2-3 ripe pineapples on hand on Wednesdays for Helen to cut and then we freeze the chunks for smoothies.


I also have her cut up veggies for Wednesday night's dinner - she will dice carrots and green beans and whatever else, so it's so nice to have one dinner a week that is fast and easy to throw together.

Wow, this is a long post, sorry!

Wednesday afternoons I go up to the MK school to teach/supervise the yearbook students. I didn't go today as all the high schoolers are in the mountains for two weeks doing their "practical anthropology" unit. :)

Also Wednesday afternoons I take the boys to "Bible class" in the neighborhood. One of our neighbors teaches it and she and I have become friends. Her theology's a BIT off, but the boys don't understand much... they just like going for the snack - which is almost always hot sweet tea and way too many cookies. :) Here are a few pics of when it was our turn to host the class....



By the time we get home from Bible class at 6 pm, I'm thankful for all the prepped veggies. We almost always do stir fry or some type of fried rice dish on Wednesdays. So if you're every wondering what we eat for dinner on Wednesday night, now you know. :)