iRobot, Just call me, UmKhaloodie.
It’s been a long week. My maid left last Saturday, now some people, especially people in my own country don’t understand why we have home help / domestic workers / maids here in Kuwait.
If I recorded a video of myself this week, our weather, my huge house and my umpteen bathrooms- perhaps people back home would realize.
When I told my sister my maid was leaving and I was dreading waiting for the arrival of a new one, her words were , ‘do it yourself’.
Back home, cleaning a small three bedroom house takes a couple of hours. My childhood bedroom was 1:4 of my current bedroom now. I could fit the whole ground floor of my mother’s house into just my living room here.
Marble doors aren’t like ceramic tiles- they need brushed/washed and then, polished… Yes, try taking just a mop over those, you will be left with streaky marks…
And 1/3 of my house is carpeted, two toddlers and carpets seemed like a good idea at the time, now I’m not so sure. Dragging that hoover round the house is exhausting (bear in mind I also have lupus… It’s debilitating to say the least).
We are currently in Sarrayat season- basically four seasons in one. Thunder, lightning, hail and 35 degrees… Oh yes, and then there’s the dust and el7umdella we haven’t seen much of that and I am praying it doesn’t arrive before my new maid gets here.
So why is cleaning so difficult here?
Well, we like our homes exceptionally clean- it takes longer, tidying doesn’t suffice here, a day of not wiping a shelf equals half an inch of sand (even if there hasn’t been a sandstorm).
Took me an hour and a half to clean my yard yesterday- an hour and a half, yep, that’s right… There was so much dirt and sand from our thunderstorm two nights ago, I actually had to clean it twice.
Today, I feel like a robot. I’m tired and I’m grumpy.
