As you know, I am retired and living in the lap of luxury in Mexico, complete with a twice-a-week cleaning lady.

She speaks less English than I speak Spanish*, and even our best communicative efforts are on the tentative side. This morning I found her patiently extracting the as-yet-unwashed dishes from the dishwasher, carefully washing each one by hand in the sink, then drying and putting it away.

I was unable to get across to her that she didn't need to do that, she just smiled and said "Si" and continued pulling the dishes out one by one. Next time I'll be prepared:

"No es necesario lavar los platos, el lavavajillas lo hace."

or I'll just make sure to run the dishwasher before she arrives. It is my understanding that she does things her own way (she won't use my Dyson vacuum cleaner when she has a perfectly good broom) and it is best to just let her do her thing. But I did have to smile watching her patiently unload the dishwasher, one item at a time in order to wash it by hand.

tanstaafl.

*I can say "¿Dónde está mi lápiz azul?" with great authority and conviction, but it is disappointing how seldom the topic of blue pencils actually comes up in conversation here.

Great cleaning lady! Kudo's to her energy-efficient (planet friendly) methods!