Cairo, the 24th October, 2010

Test to my nerves (or an intensive course on becoming a Buddha in a day)

It you're a do it yourself kind of girl (like me) and you happen to live in Egypt, you might want to avoid a cleaning lady/gentleman at your home, spending the wholllleeeeeeeee day chez vous and doing close to what you would call a half-cleaning soup time.

Standards are different everywhere. What ones may consider clean and well organized, others might consider dirty and not particularly neat.

Knowing that my levels of patience are not high (I spend them all at work), the time I have on my hands is not much and I have not even the smallest inclination to be a police man or cleaning inspector, why on earth did I try - once more - to have a cleaning agent (gentleman, this time) at my home in a particular day when I am exploding from tension and getting ready to return to work?!

Oh, God...I really put myself in messy holes, some times. My own damned doing!

It's easy to speak about inner peace, tolerance and respect for the other's rythm and path when you're isolated in a monastery but so difficult when you live between people and, particularly, tricky (in lack of a better word) when you live with egyptians and arabs you really don't get most of the times.

So, here I am since 9.00 a.m. running after a nice nubian gentleman who cleans my house with the care I devote to cockroaches.

I go after him and check on the many things that I didn't clean (hate doing the police man role!) and, most of the times, clean it myself after him because I really don't have all day and night to stand looking at him correcting and re-doing stuff that is not properly done or even slightly touched.

Bags are ready for work, I am dying to relax a while before taking a shower and getting into the performing jungle of Cairo yet again and here I am waiting for my flat to be cleaned and playing the Great Cleaning Inspector role...

Conclusion:

Cleaning standards are not the same between cultures and mentalities (I knew this one already!).

Better to do it myself (faster, better and cheaper). Also avoids a hard test to my nerves (running after a cleaning smiley gentleman at my home during all day is not my idea of bliss).

I will have to do it myself, as usual.

High music (african is the best for cleaning away the house), shorts and top (like one of those pin-ups from the 50s) and lots of energy. That's me cleaning up my home.

In a couple of hours, the house is shinning and I didn't run after anyone or paied someone to make a job I will, invariably, do after him/her.

Sometimes, by trying to make my life easier, I make it harder. Hey...I cannot learn everything at the same time, can I?!