I’ve been working for three days now for this week in the same nursing home I’ve been to before. This time I’m doing housekeeping tasks like cleaning and organizing resident’s rooms.

My entire body ached after I had my first shift last Tuesday. The thing is, the agency calls me early in the morning and asks me to start ASAP! And when I say ASAP, it’s about 30 minutes after she rang me up. My gulay! Hello, I need time to prepare and waiting for the bus takes time. I was always at the verge of saying no but all I can think of was ‘kaching!’ :)

Cleaning rooms wasn’t really hard because each area was taken care of every day. So it’s more of dusting, mopping and fixing some stuff. The real challenge was cleaning the toilets! I had to clean bowls with some poo in it. And since they are really old and standing was a challenge, tendencies are they spill poo everywhere or around the bowl. But there’s no time to arte arte.  Besides I have all the proper tools to clean it up and there’s not a chance that I’ll be touching anything with my bare hands. So yeah, everything’s fine. I just have to make sure that NO WATER FROM THE BOWL JUMPS UP TO MY FACE! :D

I like talking to old people. They are all very nice. They go:

“Thank you, Darling!”

“Good morning, sweetheart!”

“How are you, lovie?”

“Thank you for your help!”

You feel appreciated even by just doing the simplest thing you can do for them. There’s this grandpa who walked all the way where I was (because he can’t find anyone else) and asked me to dial someone in the telephone. He gave me a copy of the number with literally HUGE fonts! So cute! He also asked me to tie his shoe laces and he goes, “Thank you, dear!” One lady asked me to put some butter in her toast and said, “That’s lovely! Thank you!”

They love small talks even if sometimes you end up not understanding each other. Sometimes I’d talk to those in the lounge as I pass by, “Hello! How are you going?” and they give me this clueless face because they didn’t hear me at all. I’ll repeat it this time on a louder tone. And then they comprehend, smile and say “Oh, I’m good! #$*($%)#@&#.” Sometimes they mumble or have a harsh voice and I couldn’t understand. I just pretend and give a safe answer and say, “See ya!” Nevertheless, it’s the effort of acknowledging them that counts. :)

PS. I tried converting to peso the income I had this week. Wow! I will never earn something like that for only three days!

Thank you Lord for giving me a job! :)

xx,

Biancs