Step One: flood the building. The entire floor must be covered in water, ideally to the
point that you need to take your shoes off and roll your trousers up. Ankle
depth is perfect.
Step Two: enthusiastically throws buckets of water on all
surfaces you think need cleaning. The windows, the walls, doorways and
especially in the corners. Splash intensity is more important than accuracy.
Step Three: wade through the water with a broom and begin
to sweep the water out the front door or other entryways.
Step Four: mop the whole floor. Don’t be stingy with the
bleach and cleaning fluids. Wring the mop by hand but don’t forget to spin it
right at the end, flicking nearby individuals with bleachy water.
Step Five: sweep the soapy water out of the house,
usually through the front door. Make sure people see you cleaning!
Step Six: let dry. Reward yourself with some well-earned
chicken and fritos (fried plantains).
(Repeat these steps daily)
This was written (humorously) with experience after
helping clean out the building where we attend the weekly youth group. I was
given Step Three as a job that I was unlikely to mess up. However, most
Dominicans do clean their houses upwards of once a day, sweeping three or four
times a day. This can be accounted for a number of reasons. La Hoya itself has
only had paved roads for a handful of years, meaning that most people are still
accustomed to dirt roads and a higher level of dust and dirt. Houses here are,
on average, smaller. Most houses consist of about three or four rooms on a
single floor, contained in a square footage that would settle comfortably into
the average British person’s living room. Furthermore, most Dominicans don’t
use garbage cans and there is no garbage collection in the village. When
cooking or getting rid of trash, most people will just toss the offending item
onto the floor (usually in the same sort of general area) and then later sweep
it all out at once, usually onto the street or into an outdoor garbage pile that
will later be burned.
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