About the Maid

I really thought my family was different. I thought my maid was happier than the maids at my friends houses who tell their students all sorts of sad things and aren't allowed to leave the house. Two girls in my neighborhood were even asked to buy phone cards for their maids because they weren't allowed to go to the little supermarket near us to buy them. Some maids don't get their pay. But surely my host mom didn't do those things.

Well, the family was at my host dad's oldest son's for iftar when I got home at 6:40 or so. Sara was eating, and got some food out for me. We started talking about the Philippines, I was asking some questions and what not. Eventually she unloaded on me all the stuff that I'd been hoping she wasn't experiencing. She had been here for three years, she wanted to leave earlier, but the mom begged her to stay till March. I wonder how much choice she had? She was promised 200 US dollars a month, but since arriving she's only been given 150. She was also promised to get one day a week off, but doesn't. I can attest to that, she's been cooking and cleaning every single day since I arrived. When she asks permission to go with her friend (another maid working nearby) to go to Mecca Mall, which is like two miles from the house, she is not allowed to, no matter when she's asked. She hasn't been allowed to go these whole three years.

Then she got into the little things. She picked up one of my bowls from the table and set it back down, saying - when I do this for you, you say thank you; they never do. I had no idea what on earth to say...There isn't anything I can say, or do. At least she gets along great with the kids, and they are really nice to her. But what a miserable existence. We were told to expect this in orientation, but I felt like my specific situation was unlike this. But then we watched Friends, and she seemed happy to watch something funny...