House Maid

Many women come here from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines to work as servants/house maids.

Most of them come over with agencies and live with the family they work for. They get paid about an average of $50 a month. They send almost all of the money they make home to their families. Most of their contracts last at least 2 years.

My Arabic Mom says that Sri Lankans smell.

I'm writing from khalti Saba7's house, Maysoon (my Arab mom)'s older sister, Saba7. They have a servant. She speaks English. She's been here for about a week.

The way servants work is they are ignored.

She works hard, has no day off, and can call her family maybe one or two times a week. She talked to her family once since she's been here. She's the same age as me, and we live completely different lives.

I asked her how she's dealing with the culture shock. She said it's hard, and she misses her family. I asked her about her country. I know a little bit about the Philippines, my first boyfriend having been a first generation half-filipino. She was very happy to talk about how many islands there are, how far she is from Manila, and the other chit-chat subjects I have when the topic of "The Philippines" comes up in a conversation.

I really feel for her. Maybe it's because I come from a place where servants and house maids are super uncommon. I mean, if we want to compare socio-economic status, Saba7's family is probably not as affluent as my very much middle-class American family, however compared to the rest of the people here...also, just having a servant is a type of status symbol, I'm thinking.