I think I can safely say that most stay-at-home moms in the states would be green with envy to know that the average Paraguayan has house help. And I guess most anyone who is the cleaner of their own house, would be as well. In the US, it costs a fortune to have someone clean your house, and therefore it is considered a luxury, or only for the very wealthy. But in Paraguay, it is the norm for the middle class and above family. In fact, most of my neighbors have a nanny for each child, as well as a maid who cleans their house. My family has been blessed to have someone in our home 5 days a week since a little before Olivia came along. It has been fabulous! I did a lot of research to know what a good price was for someone to work with us and amazingly enough, the normal price for someone who works with you all week long is around $8.00 a day. And it helps me so much! It has allowed me to still be involved with activities at the church and on the team, homeschool without having to worry about cleaning the house or doing laundry, more time with my kids and to have a little "me time" or "me and Chris time" most nights when the kids go to bed without having to worry about getting caught up on house stuff. And, since she is in our house daily, she knows our kids and their routines very well. So, when we need a babysitter- she is the one we ask! The kids absolutely love her and she is fabulous with them. And it gives them and me spanish practice daily. And when I need to run errands during naptime, I take the kids who are awake with me and she is at the house in case the sleeping one/ones wake up! And most afternoons, she fixes a home-cooked meal for us for dinner. It has been such a blessing that I never could have imagined in the US. Especially since in Paraguay, cooking and house cleaning take about double the time that they do in the US! And not only does this help me, but it helps her. It gives her a chance to have a job, help her family pay their rent and get an education for herself. Prior to working with us, she was having trouble finding a job and therefore she had to quit school. When we move to the US, I am going to miss Rocio! She has blessed our family in so many ways and my kids consider her part of our family. When they pray at night for our family, they include all 5 of us, Toby (the dog) and Rocio. And I know that she is going to have a hard time when we go, because she loves our kids dearly.
And now for what I will not miss....a lack of central heat and air. Our house is a two-story house with lofts above the second story in both of the kids' rooms. The only central heat and air unit in the whole house is in the living room. The three bedrooms have window units. Our bedroom has one by our bed, but the other bedrooms have the units in the loft. In Paraguay, summer is from around October until March. And when I say summer, I am talking about an average of 108 degrees! It is hot and humid. The hottest heat I have ever experienced in my life! And since our upstairs only has 3 window units in total, there are lots of spots in the upstairs that the air never reaches...the two bathrooms, the hallway, the office area, etc. So after taking a shower in the heat, you get out and instantly start sweating. And you can forget drying your hair! Who wants to blow hot air on their head in 108 degree weather and no air conditioning? Every night at bedtime it is a chore to figure out if the kids need just a fan blowing on them in their room or if it is hot enough to require the air conditioners. Since the air conditioners are above their actual rooms, it takes the units a while to cool the rooms down. And running 3 air units all night long, every night for 6 months out of the year is not exactly cost efficient! So, we do our best to keep costs down, while keeping the kids and ourselves somewhat comfortable. Our most recent problem is that we only have 2 working floor fans! And one of those we have to jump start every night. We don't want to invest in new ones since we will be moving in a few months! Poor Olivia has a heat rash most of the time and that is with sleeping in just a diaper.
And not only is a lack of air an annoyance during the summer, it makes for a pretty cold winter. Those same window units are also our heat source during the winter. (At least two of them are because one of them only has a cooling unit) And they don't heat the same areas that they don't cool in the summer....bathrooms, hallway, laundry room and office area. So, in the winter, the houses that are designed to cope with the long summers, are ice boxes in the winter (even though the winters here are fairly mild). They are made to avoid direct sunlight and they have concrete walls and tile floors. This is fabulous for allergies and cleaning, but in the winter, it is SO cold! There are days that my feet do not get warm until I stick them in hot water for an extended amount of time. In order not to freeze, we have to have plug in heaters in bedrooms and bathrooms when we are in there. So, winter consists of moving an electric heater to whichever room you are in. Needless to say, I long for the day that I can just flip a switch and have my whole house heated and/or cooled at the same temperature! And to not have rooms/areas that we totally avoid because they are just too hot or too cold to be in for longer than a minute or two. Having an office, bathrooms and laundry rooms and often bedrooms that you avoid due to their temperature, is something that I will not miss in the slightest!
