This country might seem dirty to an American tourist, simply because it is quite dusty and there are quite a few bugs.
However, the people here are extremely clean. They (with the help of a house worker) clean and dust their homes everyday. They wash all their clothes by hand once a week (which can take more than half a day. They wash before they pray (which is five times a day), sometimes they shower and change their clothes three times a day.
A friend noticed that my American roommate and I do not clean the house quite that often. We are organized and clean, but we don't mind a days worth of dust. And we do not feel the need to deep clean the curtains once a month.
She commented on this by saying that her mother instilled in her the ethic that "simply because one is poor, does not mean that one should be messy". She takes pride in caring for her home and guests. With hurt in her eyes, she then said, "We are not 'first world', but we are cleaner than you." What I heard her saying, was "who decided that you are better and can change the rest of the world, just because you where born in a different place with a lot of stuff that you don't take care of."
So...who decided? I think we Americans (at least myself) have a lot to learn from the rest of the world.
