the servants and their quarters

As I mentioned, I live with the girls. We live in a one-story characterless house on the outskirts of the resort. There are four bedrooms each containing one or two beds and one or two girls. The number of girls depends on the day. Some have husbands or boyfriends or children in nearby towns, and leave us on the days off. I have my own room, a luxury. There is a small and quite stuffy kitchen which doubles as a laundry room and telenovela viewing area. I choose to spend little time in that space as it is either hot with laundry steam or stale with the previous nights chicken bones filling up the sink. The girls, despite their fanatacism in the guest´s rooms, do not keep their quarters so spic and span. The girls are as follows:
Gabi: generally unpleasant, unsmiling, bossy, complaining and condescending. She is from Buenos Aires and her work period terminates in just a few weeks. She will be glad to go. I will also be glad. I have fought with her several times already, in spanish. Her eyes have a way of searching for fault in each of my actions. When she finds it, she likes to speak to me as if I were a young retarded child with whom she has had enough. When she does not find fault, her eyes flash with something like hatred and she storms off. When we are not working, we feign cheerfulness with one another.
Maria: One of the cooks. She has a boyfriend in Bariloche with whom she spends half the week. Generally bored by her work. She does not like the things she cooks and would prefer McDonalds (or so she says). Instead she is stuck whipping up raspberry wine reductions and wild boar wrapped watercress. She is generally unpleasant but I make her smile when I drink the last drops of wine from the bottles and pick at the unfinished food of our picky guests in the dishroom.
Mica: Sweet Mica. She is the only one who speaks english, though it is worse than my spanish. She wants to practice her english, and I my spanish and so we have an arangement where she speaks in english, I in spanish and we correct eachother. There is much laughing and saying "I no know" or "no se". She is bright, fresh and optomistic to a fault. Though she has been experiencing boy trouble and she comes into my room at night, in her tiny girlish nightgown, to talk about love related woes. She is a little gem.
Gladis: Gladis looks wounded. She is small, quiet, dark. Thick bangs and a long thick ponytail. She does things very slowly as if exhausted by the weight of the day. One night, a few nights back, we all went dancing at a hippie rave full moon festival at a campground nearby. She danced with more spirit than expected and together we laughed at the speed freaks and dirtbags. We left the party before the others and on the way back she told me that she just divorced her husband and has three children in town. She speaks very quietly.
Xime: Very short, older than the rest. Laughing eyes and a very fierce manner. She is not afraid to make demands but I am glad to take them from her, as she is organized, efficient and no-nonsense. She also thinks it is very funny when I speak english very fast. They all seem to love that game.
Vani: Pretty and doe-eyed. She is most curious about me, and especially fixated on the fact that for me, coming from the US, the salary is not very much. She cannot seem to understand what it is that I am doing here, but she is also very kind to me. She and I like to steal chocolate and mini cremetarts from the special store room. In the mornings she practices her english, saying: "hello, good day." It pleases her to say this.
Mani: The other cook. I don´t know what it is in her freckled face, her sturdy build, her frantic mannerisms, but she seems to me the perfect stereotype of a chef in training. Perhaps it is that I have seen too much top chef. She is fierce and unfriendly with the other girls but somehow is a bit kinder to me. I translate for her as best I can the conversations of the english speaking guests. She thinks this is funny, especially when I call them estupido. I want her to like me, I try very hard with her.

Those are the girls. There are others. YOu will hear about them later. But those are the ones I am most in contact with, either in our steamy little house or in the casa principal, in which the meals are served.

Next to our house is a chicken coop and then on the other side of the chicken coop are the male servants quarters. There are only three residents there:

Eugenio: Young, sunburnt, loud. He is often seen dressed as a gaucho (shawl, funny hat, braided belt) on horseback leading guests through the woods. He is also seen mowing the lawn. Mica had a short-lived fling with him and he left her heartbroken. I tell her that he is not worth it. no vale la pena.
Samuel: Very quiet, dark, shy. He once saw me picking beets from the green house. I looked very guilty and asked him if it was ok. He said yes and quickly scampered off. He seems to work with much diligence.
Diego: the pride of the ranch. Strapping, brawny and bright, Diego is a man of all tasks. Fishing, boating, building, digging, guiding, etc. Diego does it all. He has longish dark hair and chiseled features. He takes brisk nightly swims in the lake and speaks in a soft brusk voice. I think the female guests are happy to have him on the premises.