Ode to Rita

Today, I feel like I'm not quite sure how I would manage without Rita, our nanny/housecleaner (but, wow, is she is much more!). Wednesdays and Friday afternoons are my days without her and so maybe it is Thursday (which happens to be today) when I most recognize how incredibly helpful and important she is to me. Yesterday felt like a bit of a disaster between Eli crying non-stop, refusing to take naps, only wanting to be held and then simultaneously the plumbers replacing our broken toilet (which has been leaking for the last 3 weeks and only now has it it come to replacing it...that is another story for another blog) which involved slamming doors, drilling into tile, making a total mess out of our bathroom, and entering/leaving the apartment every 5 minutes which ruined any attempt to get Eli to sleep. And of course I decided it would be a great day to make cookies, go to the grocery store with Eli in the Baby Bjorn (often very stressful), and make tacos for dinner. So, as you can imagine I was a mess at the end of the day and tears were definitely involved. Luckily, Alan came to the rescue when he got home from work so I could rest and get ahold of myself.

But then there was today which was pretty much the opposite of yesterday and was only made possible by Rita. Let me explain Rita...I have never known someone who works so hard. She arrives to the apartment at 8am (leaving her house between 4:30-5am) and works non-stop cleaning every inch of our apartment, doing 3-4 loads of laundry a week, hang drying everything, ironing everything including Eli's cloth diapers, and in between these tasks she plays with Eli all the while exuding loads of energy I could never have.

She's incredible with him and engages him in play, carries him around the room and our compound showing everything to him and observing what he's interested in whether it be the plastic container of orange dish soap or the palm trees blowing outside. If he needs to be rocked to sleep, that's just what she'll do and one time, because Eli cried every time she put him down, she just sat on a chair in his room cradling him while he slept, staying still as a rod. Mind you, she does not break, she does not eat or drink anything while at work unless I force her to (and believe me, I've done all I can do to get the woman to eat and drink during the day and she most often refuses my offerings), and I've never even seen her use the restroom. She's basically superhuman. She does like my baked goods so I try to keep a hefty load around including oatmeal cookies, apple cake, biscuits, and scones. I figure if she doesn't eat these, she might just fall over from shear exhaustion but she never does. In fact at 4:30 she leaves us to go to English literacy classes and doesn't make it home until 10-10:30 because it probably takes her two hours to get there and then to home (which is a small cement block with a tin roof that leaks every time it rains). She makes something to eat and must collapse into bed only to wake up again at 4:30am to make it to our apartment by 8:30. She always arrives with a smile, she has a wonderful laugh that can make you laugh even on your worst day, and she always looks impeccable. Rita doesn't make much for a living and she has told me she never spends her salary on clothes. She has been given many used things from past employers and me of course, which she somehow alters to fit her if they are too big. Even if the shoes are a little too small, she wears them anyway to avoid spending her money on clothes. But that doesn't mean she doesn't take pride in her appearance. She always dresses so beautifully, combining the shirt from one past employer with the pants from another and maybe wears the jewelry that was given to her as a gift from us. So that is Rita in a nutshell.

Today, I feel that because of her I've somehow overcome the very low point of yesterday. This was my day...I went for a tennis lesson at 8:30 and Rita took care of Eli during that and then while I showered afterwards. I ran out to do some food shopping and when I got back, Rita had already cleaned most of the house, put Eli down for a nap and was about to feed him. And this was just before 12pm! Then when I played with Eli, she finished some last minute things and then she took over while I made dinner. And when Eli went down for another nap, she asked if there was something she could do since she was finished. I really had nothing so I told her to go relax in the guest room and have a cookie which she did and then she read the Bible. She could have talked on the phone, closed her eyes, gone out to get fresh air, anything really, but instead she chose to read the Bible. Oh, and I forgot to mention she changed Eli's 5 poopy diapers today, dealt with him peeing all over her and the changing table (AGAIN!) and somehow still had energy to swing him around the room in her arms while I managed to get some work done for the NGO I am working with and to check some emails. She makes it possible for me to get washed and dressed for the day, exercise, take care of errands without bringing Eli along for the stressful trip, and to make a nice dinner for us to eat when Alan arrives home. These are all really important things to me and so by allowing me to do them, I am more-or-less a calm centered person that can be attentive and fun-loving with Eli every minute I'm with him (not the crazed exhausted lunatic of a person I was yesterday!).

So this is my Ode to Rita which hopefully one day I'll get to share in some way with her. But for now, I thank her profusely at the end of the day everyday and shower her with sweets and an occasional outfit or piece of jewelry. I hope that's enough to let her know how appreciative I am.