The Real Housewives Of Luanda

           Thanks to reality television, many people think that housewives are women who are living the dream. Their days consist of shopping at expensive boutiques, drinking champagne in the middle of the afternoon, enjoying leisurely massages, ordering around maids and chefs, and preparing for unnecessary dinner parties. Life as a housewife in Luanda, and for the majority of the world, is anything but what is depicted on reality television.

            I spend a great deal of time cleaning our two-bedroom apartment, washing dishes, and doing the laundry. And yes, I do realize how ridiculous that sentence sounds. How many dishes and how much laundry can two people go through in a week? Not to mention that a good clean once a week or two should be plenty to keep such a small place neat and tidy, but that just isn’t the case in Luanda. The environment plays a large role in why it is so difficult to keep our apartment clean. The considerable amount of dirt that makes up much of Luanda always seems to find its way into our little apartment. Another factor is the lack of appliances and cleaning supplies.

            One of the first things I noticed about our apartment was the flooring. Instead of being carpeted, every room is tiled. I don’t think I have ever lived in a place that didn’t have atleast one or two carpeted rooms. At first I was a little disappointed because there is nothing like waking up in the morning and putting your feet down on nice, plush carpet. But now that I have been here a few months, I am grateful for the tile because it makes keeping clean floors a much easier task. I sweep all of the floors daily and mop atleast twice a week. And when I say mop, I don’t mean that I get out my fancy Shark and clean the floors. I use a good ole mop and bucket. You would be amazed at how dirty the floors can get in such a short amount of time. And as if the environment wasn’t reason enough to mop so frequently, Adam is reason number two. He has a habit of dropping food on the floor, which is usually followed by, “you might want to mop by the couch really well because I dropped some chicken there lastnight.” I keep telling myself that he is just trying to prepare me for what it will be like when we have children. How thoughtful.

            The dirt outside doesn’t just make sweeping and mopping necessary; it also makes dusting a MUST. The air conditioners are wall units that circulate air from the outside. The dirt makes itself right at home in our apartment. I have to dust atleast once or twice a week to keep a thin film of dust from covering all of our beautiful furniture. I also use water and soap to wipe down our cream colored couches to keep them from looking black.

            Dusting and mopping aren’t the only things consuming my time during the day. I spend a lot of time hand washing dishes. I never realized how spoiled I was in the States to have a dishwasher to do all of the work for me. But now, I AM the dishwasher. I can’t spend two hours making a fancy meal and then simply throw all of the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Instead, I have to scrape every bit of food off of the dishes to avoid clogging the small drain that doesn’t have a garbage disposal. I then have to hand wash each and every item before piling them into a drying rack. Needless to say, I have a new appreciation for the garbage disposal and dishwasher.

            Laundry is a job in itself. When we first moved here, I didn’t realize that there were laundry machines in the utility room of our complex because many people in Luanda don’t have machines and do everything by hand. I spent hours a day doing laundry because I had to collect and carry the fresh water to the spinning machine, and then afterwards I had to drain the dirty water myself. I had to hang all of the clothes to dry and then iron each piece, including socks. Who needs a gym when you have a pile of dirty laundry in a third world country? You can imagine how sore I was after doing a load or two of laundry. But now that we know about the machines, we utilize them weekly. The only differences between machines here and in the States are that it takes a little longer to wash and dry and there aren’t as many cycle options on either machine. I can’t complain though because a few extra hours in the machine mean less backache for me.

            Life as a Luanda housewife is anything but glamorous. It really makes me appreciate the things that we have in the States that I took for granted before I moved here. But a little hard work never hurt anyone.