An emergency

On goes a day in the life for me. All was goingwell. The maid showed up and began her cleaning. I managed to get my point across to her that I had a meeting to go to and would return around noon. I even managed to tell her that I wanted to start my cooking lessons upon my return. Then everythign fell apart. I wanted her to decide on what we should cook, something she knows and likes and is typical for Mexico. She was telling me to make a list of ingredients and I was trying to tell her to. Communication for me is still rough. I tried using google translate, and that helps, but if you use anything byut a simple sentence with correct grammar, forget it. I think it is even worse for her. I realized the person who was picking me up for the meeting was fluent in Spanish and I managed to get that point across. Caroline came, go tmy point across of what I wanted, the maid was happy, and we were on our way. Caroline said that on our way home, we'd pick up the maid and go shopping and that she would help us communicate...Yahoo!

Shopipng went wondefully and was quite a learning experience for me. It was nice to have people with me to show me what some of the things are and what they are for. All is well so far.... We are gong to make a chicken soup.

We washed the vegetables and then out came the cutting boards, and knives and we were on our way to lesson humber 1. I was cutting cabbage and Betty was starting to cut corn off the cob. The she quickly left the kitchen. Upon her return she has a tissue wrapped on her finger and came to show me that she needed something. So smartly, I deduced, that she neeeded a band-aid. I got them out for her and she ren out to the sevice sink and ran the water, I stepped out there only to see blood pouring down the drain...a simple band=aid would not do! I promply grabbed one of Mark's white handkerchiefs, got it wrapped around her finger, raised her arm above her heart and squeezed the brachial artery in her arm...that slowed the bleeding down cnsiderabley. Well, enough to be able to see that she needed stitches!...Hmmm, I have no car, absolutely no clue where to get medical help, and how do I tell her we need to go to the hospital??? Oh yeah, Caroline, my friend. Well, calling her is a trick..I thought the telephone gettone in Italy was bad! Here you have to dial a certain way if you are calling a home phone, cell phone,. or from a house phone or ell phone. I could not get her. I really think her line was busy. No problem, I know a lady a couple houses down, she can help, I called her house...she was out, her husband could not help, he wa on a confernce call and she had the car. What to do??!! I called Mark. He called the lawyer (seems a bit much, but we are responsible for the maid and the lawyer has been a saving grace through our learning experiences and adaptation to the country and his office is 5 minutes from our house). But of course, this day, he was not in the office. He said he'd call his office and see if he had a legal aide that was free to come help. OK, so Mark is on the phone with me and on another phone with the lawyer. I put Betty on the line so he could tell her what was happening. Mark could not get her to understand, so he put someone else from work on the line. I could her e the maid, Betty, " No, hospital" but the legal aide was still coming. While all of this was gong on the maid has such a sense of obligations, she insisted she direct me and continue our lesson! At that point, I ws ready for a glass of wine and to forget dinner...wine ans cheese sounded fine with me! Whe the aide got here she took one look at the cut and told the maid she WAS going to the doctor and the hospital if he said she needed stitches. Off they went...laundry on the line, more in the wsher and dryer, kitchen in an uproar...seems normal to me, so I finished putting the soup togther..my way not very Mexican, finished the laundry, and did the dishes. The maid and aide returned...two stiches, antibiotics in hand,, and maid ready to get back to work.. Amazing . She went straight to the laundry room, questioned the laundry and I shoed her the clock. she was to have left a half hour ago and needs to catch her bus home. She felt so bad that I did the finishing of everything. She has such a sense of obligation, It was all normal for me, I do it every day...even when she is not her, I guess that is not what is normal at all.
On her ay out the door, she checked the soup, added some spices, and kept reitterating shewill be back on Thursday (her other normal day). I guess she was afraid she might not have a job after that.
Ahh well, it is al in a day,,,As sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives!!