Moppin'

I decided to tackle some household chores today. Hardly a blippable subject for most of you, but being a bachelor, living alone, this is a rare event indeed.

Indonesian women are extremely house proud and chores that I might consider as a once a week event (I won?t embarrass myself by suggesting a longer interval) are performed daily. I am talking about dusting down all surfaces, sweeping the tiled floor and then mopping, every room of the house.

I guess this practice is driven by the constant stream of visiting neighbors. I am sure they are not judgmental, but the childhood memory of Grandma on her hands and knees, scrubbing the front slate step with a chunk of sandstone every morning, springs to mind. The step was the first thing that was checked by the definitely judgmental neighbors back then. I know this because I overheard them talking about Mrs. Grimethorpes step that hadn?t seen a stone in over a week.

I remember the first visit to my wife?s, mothers house in the village (Kampung). A very humble affair with woven bamboo walls. A sharp command, ?SHOES? was issued by Tessa, as I had not got used to taking off my shoes when entering a house. Even after several hours, the soles of my feet were still spotless and the cool, clean floor felt so good.

Pretty soon neighbors were walking in, to see who the strange new visitor was. Children peering through the fence for a glimpse and would run away screaming as soon as I suddenly appeared at the doorway. The kids were so funny. Even a chicken wandered in and caused chaos, as all the women joined in to ?shoo? tomorrows dinner away.

Feeding time was a problem at first. I was always taught to leave nothing on my plate. So as I was nearing completion, a load more food was piled on. Each time I neared completion, more food and so on. I thought she was trying to kill me. On the way home, Tessa told me that her Mom said that it must cost a fortune to feed him, he just keeps eating. Apparently I was supposed to stop when I?d had enough, but no one told me.

Sorry I wandered off topic, but I have so many stories of my Indonesian experiences. I had better save some for another blip.

Dave