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| We packed our bags and loaded the car!.....ok not really i took this pic a month ago when I was walking to the bank, this is quite ridiculous |
So today I was hand washing my clothes because I'm not going to have time next week. I need them to hang dry for a couple days so they will be ready to be taken into the house before vacation. While I was washing, I was thinking about how normally we pay this one incredible woman to hand wash our clothes for us each week. Her name is Doña Paulina. (You add the word Doña or Don before someones name out of respect, kind of like Mrs. or Mr.). She comes to our house every Monday to hand wash our clothes and she really does wash them pretty well. She makes money for her family from us and from the sisters when she works at the school. Her husband can no longer work because of an injury. God Bless her! She only charges us 1B for each article of clothing. 1B is about 15 cents. I think she deserves more because we give her the dirtiest and smelliest of clothes and she makes them all clean again. I usually try to wear the same white shirts over each day but after a few days the white shirts are covered in dirt from little kid hand prints and mud that is kicked up from soccer games. After Dona Paulina gets hold of the clothes, they become brand new again and I would never be able to scrub it as clean. She even washes our clothes in the rain. Two weeks ago she was at our house scrubbing all our clothes for 4 hours, in the rain, and she only made a couple dollars that day. My friends and I felt like jerks. She is such a hard worker and we know she loves us. Later that week she invited us to her B-day party at her house that she was having with her family. It started at 8pm and we did not get there until 9:30pm because we were coming from another birthday party that we had eaten at. When we finally go to her house, we saw outside that there was a table set for about 10-15 people. Dona Paulina and her family had waited for us latecomers to come to her house before they started eating dinner. They didn't want to eat without us. Once again my friends and I kind of felt like jerks for unknowingly making them wait for us while we were eating at another bday party. Before they brought out the food and wine, they placed 3 bottles of soda on the table and I could not help to think "well there goes her 4 hours worth of pay for hand washing our clothes in the rain". It was really nice to see how much her family loves her. Her family gave her a few words of encouragement and at the end of dinner everyone gave her a hug and a kiss. Then we took turns dancing with her.
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| left to right: Manny, Dona Paulina, Steph, Julie, me |
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| They might not have washing machines here but every family has a nice set of speakers |
When I first got here I did not know to much about Doña Paulina. I just knew her as the person who washes our clothes every week. I didn't know her as a faithful catholic, a loving grandmother, or as a selfless wife. After getting to know her and her family, she makes me want to get to know more of the hard workers here. She makes me want to pay attention to the hard workers of society that do the tedious services for us each day. That janitor in our school who we pass by everyday who we know by face but not by name. That landscaper who makes our homes or office buildings look more beautiful than we could ever make look even as half as nice. They are all people and deserve to be loved and appreciated. We could take a little bit more time out of our day to spark a conversation with them or even depending on the situation even generously offering them a raise. We should let those people know we are thankful for them and for the time that they save us to do the things we don't feel like doing. This is the month in our church we try to focus more on the Sacred Heart of Jesus..... Sacred Heart of Jesus touch our hearts with yours and help us to love others in the way that you love them. Lord help us to see them the way that you see them.
