Friday, February 22, 2013

The cleanest house in Mexico?

Lots of laundry
After almost a month at my mother-in-law´s house making sure that Abishael had completely recovered from pneumonia before returning to our colder house, Abraham, Abishael, and I went back home to Huejotzingo on a Wednesday  morning.  Because of our extended absence, the house had accumulated a layer of fine dust that decorated shelves, books, all our clothes, everything.  Abraham and I immediately began a thorough cleaning of our room, because Abraham is allergic to dust.  With the washer running full of bedding and some clothing, we took all our clothes off the shelves and hangers and heaped them in a tub in order to wash them little by little.  I dusted while Abraham mopped.

Doll house toys drying
On Sunday our adolescent dog began to show signs of sickness, vomiting and not wanting to eat or drink.  After kids´ club in the afternoon, Abraham called the vet, and he said that a strong outbreak of giardia was sweeping through Huejotzingo.  He told us that we could also be infected by it and recommended an intense cleaning of our house and patio with creolin.  Abraham scrubbed the patio with a solution of creolin, while I began mopping the floor and cleaning all the kids´ toys in the part of the house where we have classes.  Soon the house smelled like a hospital.

We spent Monday, normally our day of rest, in super-clean mode.  Our living room rug had to be washed, as did all the floors, and all of Abishael´s toys.  Unsure of how paranoid to be, we started using filtered water to rinse our dishes after washing them and decided to bathe Abishael in boiled water rather than in the shower.  The vet came and vaccinated both dogs and prescribed oral medicine for them as well.  Even so, the adolescent dog died on Monday night.

We still don´t know exactly how cautious to be.  The adult dog is fine, and none of us has become sick, but information on the internet indicates that we still could up to some months later.  We are going to put chlorine tablets in our cistern and roof tank on Sunday night after kids´ club and will spend Sunday night through Tuesday at my mother-in-law´s house, since the water at our house will be unusable for 48 hours after we put in the chlorine tablets. 

Please pray for us that we don´t get sick, especially Abishael.  Pray also that we can return to our normal lives with normal classes with the kids and that we can start the school and the English classes soon without any further interruptions.  Our original plan was to start the school in January and the English classes in February, but sickness changed those plans.