A Case of Miscommunication At Its Best

I have mentioned my Ayi a few times in past blogs. If you don't remember, my Ayi was the lady who came once a week to clean my apartment and chatted my ear off for about half of the time she should have been cleaning. :) I didn't mind, though, because it was great language practice for me! As you can see, I am using the past tense as I describe her. Yep, she's gone. :( Don't get me wrong, she's not off the face of the earth gone, she's just not working for me anymore! Here's the story...

For the past 3 Tuesdays I have pulled myself out of bed in the morning to get ready to greet my Ayi. For the past 3 Tuesdays she has not shown up and each week I got increasingly concerned! Finally, I called the other teacher who has the same Ayi and asked him what was up. He said, "well, she's not working for you anymore." What?!?! I hung up wondering what I had done to upset or offend her so much that she didn't want to work for me anymore and didn't even bother to tell me!! I was so confused and sad that I called the other teacher again and asked him to find out some more details - why she quit and why didn't she tell me?! So, he called back a few days later with this report: she said that her health is not good and one apartment is enough work for her. She also said that she had told me this along with the fact that she wouldn't be coming back again and I had replied, "OK." Thinking back, I DO remember this conversation and I DID say "OK." I had misinterpreted her meaning and thought she was taking a sick day so I said "OK" and shut the door...I bet she was even more shocked than me!! :) I didn't put up any fight for her to stay at all! Sometimes I wonder how I survive here....

Farewell, Ayi...my apartment will never look so clean or smell so nice as when you were here to carry away all of those scampering dust bunnies.