So, for context, I am visually impaired, I’m very petite, I bought a home in Greece, four months ago. It has not been the easiest of weeks, as most of you know we have had wildfires in the area, and we also had a massive explosion at an ammunition warehouse on Thursday, situations which I was completely unfamiliar with and they were quite frightening, I had nightmares but I am starting to be OK and move on.
anyway, I have had trouble with finding someone “just to clean“ a lot of these people also want to be my mother, my caregiver, etc. While I understand the worry, it’s not necessary and I have been doing OK up to this point. I might not be able to cook Greek meals yet, and when I do I cook them in my own way, the one that works for me. I do, need some help with things like cleaning because I don’t always see if there’s a spider, a cockroach, dirt somewhere where I really have no idea… You get the idea.
I put an ad on Facebook saying that I needed a cleaning lady for once a week. Somebody showed up on Thursday, just to meet me, and her reaction was like I need to do this this this this and this, do you want me to cook, etc.? I understand it to many people, especially if you don’t know somebody who is visually impaired, you might not understand how they can cope or how they can do things, especially when they are alone in a foreign country, which I am. She wanted €10, per hour which is slightly above average for this area for somebody to clean, and she said it was because she had to do other things as well. Including ironing. I don’t even have an iron… So how she is going to iron, I don’t know how she’s going to do that… Anyway, fast forward five days, she has been here on Friday, on Saturday, on Sunday, and again yesterday. She is asking for a lot of information, saying it is so she can help me. But it is very invasive information, she has even asked me for my keys, she wants me to get a spare pair for her, which I am absolutely not in agreement with and doing everything to avoid. she has been doing things like using my perfume, eating half the food in my fridge, I think these things are her way of keeping me company, but I’m a very independent person and I need my space, and she doesn’t ask what food she can take or if she can use my perfume.
I have another young lady from the University working with me three hours each evening, and we do things like work on life skills so I will be OK here, we do activities that would be very difficult for me to do on my own, like I am learning how to serve, how to sell, things that I love to do but I just need a second person to do them with. The lady from the morning has told me I shouldn’t have too many people, and I shouldn’t tell them what the lady in the morning was doing with me. Yesterday, she called the girl who works with me in the evening telling her to heat up my food, because she’s afraid of me using the stove, and telling the girl in the evening where my puzzles are, she also asked for the girl in the evenings phone number.
I sent a message to the lady, in Greek, I asked my friend to write some thing so I knew the lady in the morning would understand it, and it goes along the lines of disability is not in ability, it is just a difference. Thank you for caring, but I can manage my self. The lady completely ignored this, didn’t even respond to it.
I am so uncomfortable right now. My helper in the evening is willing to talk to the lady in the morning and tell her that she is just being a bit too invasive and that we have found another solution. I hope this works, because I don’t know what else to do. I don’t need a second mother, the reason I bought my home in the first place was so I could do what I want in it, without having to worry about being constantly told how to live my life, what to do with my things, etc.