Housekeeper

The housekeeper of the apt is Sarenjin. He is roughly 40 and has a wife and 2 daughters 3 and 6 I think. He used to be head of housekeeping of the old computer company offices and will hold the same job when the offices for the new company are finished and in the meantime he has been doing housekeeping at the apt. He started spending half the day at the offices on the 1st so we don't see him as much at the apt but I don't feel that there's a whole afternoon of housework here. He does the laundry (leaving my piles on my luggage or inside if it's open) about every other day (the washer is tiny-o so tiny and adorable), cleans the kitchen, sweeps and mops the whole apt, organizes the recycling (recycling is king here, we more or less don't make trash), brings fresh fruit everyday and makes fruit salad and will bring other groceries or get take out depending on what we need (the first couple days i was here he brought take out cuz I wasn't up for going out). If we're in the apt at lunchtime he makes us plates of leftovers (that still freaks me out) He loves to organize things and i've been told "yeah, you can put it there, but it'll just wind up where Sarenjin thinks it should go". He comes by roughly from 12-6 Mon-Sat and doesn't stay here the whole time, but runs errands, usually including the farmers market. Since June 1st he's been coming by for an hour or two after a while at the office. I don't think an apt this size needs a housekeeper, but it's sort of a transition job between companies, and he's someone to ask "where do we get this?" or "how do we get this fixed?" I get the impression that he is very good at asking around for things. Since there are about 3 1/2 white people in this city, it's in our interest to have a 'cultural liason'. He takes the bus now but will hopefully get a scooter soon. We asked him about avocados yesterday and he had never seen one around here. Too bad! More mango!

photos 1) more traffic 2) my second sock is better than the first 3) a new kitchen shelf was delivered the other day 4) I love the ice cube trays, you twist them and the cubes fall into a bucket below 5) the o so tiny washing machine on the kitchen balcony (pannies and sox are hung on this balcony and towels and shirts etc on the more public balcony)