Cleaning Up

Yes, we made it to Cairo. Jim arrived back in late March, and I came with the girls and my father at the beginning of May. So much has happened since we arrived, I will have to back track and fill you all in on our adventure thus far. But before I take you back to my first impressions, I have something much more pressing before I have time to put those thoughts down. It's almost 11 at night and I need to wake up early tomorrow so read on and I'll fill you in soon enough ~ Bess


Could it be happening finally? Everybody who's ever been overseas talks about the luxury of having affordable domestic help. So of course, that was something I'd greatly anticipated before our arrival in Cairo.

Well, after interviewing five housekeepers, we finally settled on an Egyptian maid. She seems very pleasant and accommodating. And really, I can't wait to not have to clean my own home anymore, especially since I'm not very good at it.

The problem now is that she is due to start tomorrow and my house is a mess. You would think that's a good thing, I'm sure. But I, on the other hand, am panicked that someone, a stranger no less, is coming to my home who will see how my nice little family lives.

That is, after being here for five weeks, I'm embarassed that I live the way I do: a good two inches of dust on the furniture (I'm sure of it), piles of paperwork everywhere (which is my usual m.o. but did anyone else know about this before?), and remnants of unfinished stuff laying about (magazines I've saved from our last two moves, knic knacs that desperately need a home, Hannah's "art projects" in a million pieces, unused things ready for storage strewn about in the dining room). At least I used to shove all that stuff in the basement before our guests arrived, but now, someone is coming to see everything, and I'm supposed to be OK about it because this person is hired to clean my house afterall.

No problem, I'm getting up early tomorrow so I can put things away before she gets here. It's crazy, I know, but she's going to find out all about my family and our dirty little secrets.