One Monday we helped Nancy, the wife of our host family, around the house. We swept the hallways, the bedrooms, the store, the church (which is the lower part of the house), the kitchen, etc. Rachael also helped Nancy wash the floors in the kitchen and dinning room. While some of us swept, the other two ladies worked on the boys’ laundry. It took us three hours to clean the house. In that three hours the other girls got two loads of laundry done. In that same time Nancy cooked lunch and her mother in law ran the store. Three hours! That’s like the entire morning! When we finish lunch it takes about another hour to clear the table and do the dishes. Then it’s back to running the store and cooking.
It left me wondering “How do they ever get ahead?” Now I realize that you don’t have laundry to do EVERY day but most families in this community average at least 5 people, it doesn’t take long for that laundry to add up; especially when you only have handful of outfits because that’s all they can afford. And I realize that cooking for all 14 of us at the house takes longer than it does to cook for just their family; BUT you still need to cook food and cook it thoroughly.
Their store is open pretty much 7 days a week; but it doesn’t always bring in enough income to support the family. They often supplement their income by raising chickens. Raising the chickens also means that they need to kill, pluck, clean and gut the chicken before they actually sell it to a person. Often times this results in them waking up around 5am (depending on the size of the order) to take care of the chicken order before they begin their regular daily routines.
It just amazes me how hard this family works just to keep up. It’s as if there is literally no time for a vacation or break of any kind.
