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Sexy T-exies, starving children, and wiggling for the boss
2005-07-10 10:55:45
By Rose Mwalongo
I once wrote about my intention to start up a special NGO for training TX’S. May I remind you that in my case the term TX refers to house girls or maids since most of them are imported from upcountry?
Of lately, I have been doing research (local of course, nothing to brag about) and have collected so many stories about them that I can’t help sharing some of them with you. The names used in my stories are all fictitious.
STORIES ABOUT MAIDS FROM THE LADIES’ PERSPECTIVE
Siyawezi has just got married, and she goes upcountry and finds herself a TX namely Niangusege, and the following is a chronology of events. Day I = Niangusege uses a cooking pot to take a bath , and soaks her clothes in it. Day 2 = Niangusege uses a wooden spoon to clean a thermos flask and breaks it.
Day 3 = She cooks porridge and adds ice to cool it down for the children to drink. Moreover, she puts the food in a hot pot and preserves it in a refrigerator.
Worse yet, She receives an international call from a table phone, and hangs it up before she goes to call the father of the house, who immediately runs to receive the call only to find it hung up.
As days go by, Niangusege becomes a bit sophiscated and whenever Madame goes to work, Niangusege finds mommy’s best suit, puts it on and then has pictures taken in the sitting room and sends them home upcountry.
Things are heating up now, as the TX now knows how to switch on the radio as well as the television set which she calls vigedeon, a translation of Video.
And so her performance goes down and now she spends most of her time dancing to the music on the radio.
Worse still, whenever the father of the house comes home, Niangusege receives him while dancing, and shaking what her mama gave her as if she were a professional dancer. In fact she is no longer afraid of the father of the house, and she keeps smiling at him.
Nearby the house, there is a houseboy who also hails from the same village as Niangusege, and so the sister creates an acquaintance . Before anyone could know what is happening, Niangusege spends most of her time with the boy.
By the way, Siyawezi just got a new born and the toddler stays home with her sister who drinks the milk and puts water in the baby’s bottle .
You want to know something? The sister drinks the milk straight from the baby’s bottle.
Mind you, whenever mama comes back, she wants to know whether the baby has drunk the milk. Niangu is quick to respond :” Yes mama, she drank four bottles today.” Poor lady, if only she knew what went on?
Things move like this for quite sometime, then six months later Madame and her husband are shocked when the child’s health deteriorates. And when they send her to the pediatrician, he tells them that she is suffering from kwashiorkor, a disease caused by lack of proper diet.
May I remind you that Siyawezi and her husband are both graduates who have well paid jobs and one thing for sure is that they provide everything there is to feed their one and only child but guess what, Niangusege feeds herself on the cereal milk, and is now so fat that she can compete for a Miss Fao contest.
Despite everything, Madame maintains the same girl, and once in a while she sends a bodyguard to check on whether the kid is being fed well.
One day the bodyguard goes to the house, and is shocked to find the child seated on the couch alone listening to the radio .
The bodyguard stays for half an hour and then the TX emerges from a neighbor’s house. As he asks her why the baby was left alone, the TX responds easily that the kid loves music so much that should you switch on the radio, you can leave her alone for as long as you wish!
The bodyguard leaves the house and narrates the issue to Siyawezi who pays the maid and immediately fires her. When she goes to work, she narrates the ordeal to her friend who suggests that she finds an old woman to take care of her kid, which she does.
And so, she hires Mama Tabu, a sixty year old, and guess what, she takes good care of the kid alright, but she loves beer, and whenever the father of the house sips one, she too must get one or else she becomes highly disappointed.
Moreover, whenever she goes home , she makes sure that she takes some food like rice, sugar, cooking oil and even soap for her family at home. So Siyawezi’s Budget goes up with more beers and more of everything for the family of grandma Mama Tabu.
Nevertheless, Siyawezi is happy, for at least Mama Tabu knows all there is to know about little children and treats her as if she were her own granddaughter. Better still, she posses no threat to Siyawezi as far as snatching her husband is concerned, which is what most of ladies worry about.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN.
FROM THE HOUSE GIRL PERSPECTIVE
Kadada is a girl who has been employed as a TX by a certain family. There are four small and naughty kids at the house, and Kadada attends to them all. Despite her good performance, the lady reserves a special old table where Kadada eats an inferior diet.
One day Kadada goes to her usual table and finds a loaf of bread for breakfast, and she begins to munch it.
Guess what, Madame sees her and asks her who has given her the right to eat the bread before it is rotten.
It is then that Kadada realizes that her table is normally served with rotten food, and that the fresh bread was left there by accident.
How cumbersome! If that is not enough, Madame tells her never to use the toilet inside the house to relieve herself.
One day Kadada accidentally burns mama’s dress while ironing, and guess what, Madame uses the same iron to iron her arm, which is severely burned. Immediately after this , Kadada packs her things and leaves.
Big boys and girls, if I were to write all the stories about the maids, I probably would fill a book. All in all I have a simple piece of advice to all out there. Those maids are human beings. They need to be appreciated and deserve humane treatment.
So let us all try to do what ever we can to treat them as if they are our own children.
And to housegirls, I say, do what it is you came for, we don’t need you to smile at our husbands, we know how to do that ourselves.
Also, don’t wiggle and wobble when greeting them, and do what you are paid to do. Shalom, and bye!
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