we all want
to live the ugandan dream ie. drive an ipsum, have a lovely family and acquire
a house.
a
friend of mine recently told
me of his plans to build
a house in naalya. the good news is, if he keeps shooting blanks, i won't have to deal with my
land lord any more. the
bad news is, he isn't
building the house for himself or his family or ME (this is sad). he is building it for the house maid.
in
this era where people work 10 hours a day and spend over 2 hours a day in traffic
jam (parking lots), it is
the house maids who enjoy the houses that people build so pain stakingly.
the
house maid (boss lady)
sends you to work every
morning so you can make enough money to pay the mortgage while she stays home and watches africa magic which you pay for...she even calls you to let you know about the e16 error message alerting
you to renew the
subscription.
many
people build houses with
children in mind, but still, children spend most of their time in school; if it is boarding school they
spend only 3 months a year in the house and if they are day scholars they spend
as much time at home as you do.
and that little time your kids spend at home (at least half of it), its under
her dictatorship
granted parents work so hard, they don’t have time to respond the kids’ every whimper, and so the "boss lady” takes up that role too. you eventually find that your kids are closer to her than to you. you try to pick up your baby and it cries then you give it to the "boss lady" and the kid calms down instantly.
and when
your kids leave the nest, you find yourself stuck in a four bedroom house where
you are only familier with your bedroom and bathroom and she is familiar with
the rest.
we spend 20
years schooling only to spend the rest of our lives unwittingly working for an
illiterate.
Then the solution to all this is pretty simple, dont employ her. take your kid to day care and pick them up after work. clean your own house and do your own laundry. Thats why the "muzungu" invented things like a washing machine, vacuum cleaner etc... get the work done yourself. In the US majority of households minus the really rich have house helps because they are too expensive. So there is the solution so u wont feel like you work for "her".
ReplyDeleteu have quite an interesting perspective...
ReplyDeleteso i don't get yo argument! should we not marry "boss lady" or when we marry her should we not bear children? or if we bear should we not build a house?
ReplyDelete