La Muchacha named Emma

In Guatemala it's very common to have a "muchacha," or maid. It's also common for family member's to refer to their maid as "muchacha" and not by their first name. Beth hears this a lot at school as children are frequently accompanied to school and picked up by their maids (so the maids can carry their bags, tie their shoes, etc.). Many faculty members pay to have their places cleaned a few times a month by a maid (as it's relatively cheap), but we hadn't planned on it mainly because I work at home, have time to clean and keep the place up, and I even enjoy being tidy and clean.

But that all changed when we learned of a maid who could cook up some good Asian style food...

Her name is Emma, and she learned to cook while working with a Filipino woman at a previous job. She's tiny, reserved, hard working, and makes some seriously tasty food. Emma came over to our place on Saturday around 10:30 a.m. and got to cleaning the apartment. We had to run out and buy some supplies she needed (namely a specific type of mop that is favored here. She simply stated she could not use a regular sponge-headed mop that we had, so we got the kind that clamps down on a folded towel.) She did a nice and thorough job cleaning and then got to work on the food. Luckily we had a good number of groceries on hand, although Beth did pick up a few extra things for her and she was able to make two separate dishes: one with chicken, potatoes, veggies, and a coconut milk/curry sauce, and one with noodles and stir-fried veggies and no meat.

Beth and I grew more and more excited as she cooked because our place began to swell with the tasty aroma of the dishes. When she finished, it was only 4:30 in the afternoon, but it looked and smelled so good, I had to have dinner right then and there. She made so much that there's been enough for leftovers up 'til today even.

We insisted that Emma take some food home with her, as how can you not enjoy food you labor over that smells so good? She protested, but eventually agreed and that made us not feel so guilty about the whole thing. Emma worked for about six solid hours and we could have paid her what roughly amounted to $13 (which we later learned was a high price...for six hours of work!), but gave her a generous tip to bring it up to a level that seemed a bit more fair to us.

Emma's going to come by twice a month and, even though it's nice to have some help cleaning up the place, it's really all about the food!