Stella

A few weeks ago we gave in and decided that looking after a five bedroom house requires far too much time and effort, and decided to copy other VSO volunteers and employ a cleaner. Through my boss, the Bishop, he found us a cleaner who attends his church. Stella’s story is a sad one though in a Zambian context unfortunately not unique. Her husband is late (has passed away) and she has four children, all under the ages of 15, to care for and ideally send through school. Whilst we have not directly discussed her HIV status, she is on some form of regular drug treatment. Despite this situation she is a complete joy, always arriving on time (often early which is unheard of from my experience here so far) with a friendly, warm smile on her face and then does a fantastic job cleaning the house. Stella comes to the house twice a week and when I return, I find my shirts cleaned, ironed and hanging in the wardrobe. I have not had my underwear, socks and t-shirts folded away so neatly in my chest of drawers for a long long time. She has also started cultivating a vegetable garden in our compound with some seeds that we bought for her. So with a bit of luck ... squash, cabbage, onions, rape, chives and hopefully basil will start growing in the garden; mainly for her family, and a bit for us, to eat.