I always wish for an interesting companion on my plane rides! What I have come to realise is that everyone has at least one interesting story to tell. What is required is an ability to discover it.
I find myself sitting next to a Sri Lankan lady who is on her way to Saudi Arabia to be a housemaid. I notice her nervousness and know this is her first time on an airplane when she asks me to help her with her seatbelt and for help opening the overhead compartment.
We start to chat. She has just said goodbye to her two young children of 8 and 9 and her husband who she will not see for the next 2 years. She is visibly upset and is grateful to chat.
She tells me about her life. Her husband is a day labourer who brings home about $5 a day when he can find work. They live a hand to mouth existence and most of this money goes on food, the rest to pay for utilities. She tells me they are lucky to have a house but the roof leaks when it rains and there is no money for costly repairs such as this.
She has many friends who have travelled as house maids before. She has heard all the stories and is aware of the risks but made the decision to make this journey in search of a better life for her family.
She has just been through 2 weeks of intensive training. This is a new initiative from the current Sri Lankan President and she says it is one of the best things introduced for prospective travellers to the middle east.
They are taught the language, how to cook, how to behave, how to dress, how to serve up the food and what to expect. They are taught practicalities such as opening up a bank account here in Sri Lanka, so they have somewhere to send their savings. She tells me that half her salary will go to her husband and her children while the rest is put aside for herself, ensuring she has something to come back to. She tells me how the maids who went in the early days sent all their money back to their spouses and came back to find their spouses had taken up with other women and their money had all been spent.
She tells me she will make $200 a month. Not a lot of money for the work she will be expected to do and the hours she will have to work. In Saudi Arabia you are not allowed to leave the house you are working in. She will be a virtual prisoner in a strangers house for 2 years! She is willing to risk it in the hope she can provide more opportunities for her children.
She knows the risks. In the past there have been instances when house maids came back in a coffin. Her own mother who worked in Kuwait was once hit on the head by her employer. The blow was so severe her head split open and she was rushed to hospital where she was forced to lie about her injuries. Her mother pleaded with her to not make this journey. This lady is travelling to a place where she could lose her hands if she were to be caught stealing but it is also a place where she has more opportunity than the land of her birth. She has weighed the pros and cons and is willing to risk it all although she is already missing her children badly and is still questioning the decision she made.
I ask why it is only the women who travel to the Middle East to work as maids. She tells me that women are preferred and prospective employees will pay an agency here about $2,000 per female maid. If a man wants to go, he must actually pay the agency for his arrangements. The women are given clothes, air tickets and the household they leave behind a sum of $150 for the first month. For many of of them, it is a deal they can’t easily refuse.
She has made up her mind to be in Saudi for 2 years. She plans to come back briefly to see her family and then spend another 2 years in Kuwait or Dubai working as a cleaner in a hospital. Kuwait or Dubai she hopes will give her more freedom of movement. In Saudi Arabia you are not allowed to leave the house you are working in to go down to the shops or get a bit of fresh air. You are a virtual prisoner in your employer’s house. She is hopeful that at the end of four years she will have enough money to do the repairs to her house and set up her family for the future.
I see the sadness in her eyes and the fear she feels about the future and wish her well. I saw many such maids lined up at the check in counter and I wonder at the families they leave behind and what they will come back home to, in two years time. These women are prepared to brave everything so their families can have a better life. Many middle class Sri Lankans are possibly unaware of how hard it is for the average person to just get by and what they are prepared to risk for a chance at a better life. After travelling through South East Asia, I myself was quite surprised at the cost of living in Sri Lanka. As the plane touches down at Dubai airport I bid my fellow passenger goodbye and hope the risks she has taken will prove worthwhile.
“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors”. William Blake
No comments:
Post a Comment