The Dakar Files… Maid In Senegal.
Adama no longer works…
Adama is my mother’s maid and has been for a while now.
They have known each other long enough for her to come and go. She had a few better opportunities and mother wished her well on her new adventures and ventures. Adama would always come back if it didn’t work out. Mother would always take her in.
Not too long ago, she worked as a seamstress, but either they didn’t need for her services anymore or the term for her employment was up or she was not doing a good enough job. I will never find out, I suppose!
She, more recently, was hired to work in this luxurious villa, but she couldn’t have been there a month, and she found herself out of work again.
Mother took her back, yet again… and this time mother is certain she was let go from that position. I digress… Adama is back with us…
Whereas most maids work a full day, Adama works with us from morning and by 1–2pm, she’s gone for her to explore other opportunities and supplement her income. No need for her to stay home and when there’s no one in the house, when there’s nothing else to do, when we can manage on our own! No reason to deprive her of hustling it out, out there or maybe just enjoying her youthful life.
Only thing though, Adama always shows up late! Whereas most start working at 7, or 8, she strolls in at 930AM… Every. Day! Always with some excuse of what happened with the commute, what happened the night before, or what transpired with her roommates… It’s always something… Always… but what’s not talked about is Adama likes to sleep in. Adama is a night owl and can’t get up early if her life depended on it!
Since the day before Eid, 18 days ago, we have not seen Adama and today was her first day reporting back to work. This time Mother had enough! Adama no longer works with us!
We are left without a maid, but this is nothing new to anyone in this household. We all lived abroad, and are used to doing chores by ourselves. Cleaning: if everyone cleans their corners as we go, then the house will remain clean. Cooking: we all like different things: some like carbs, others like lean, others like fruits & veggies, so let everyone cook for themselves what suits them. Laundry, there’s a laundress! Groceries: we manage on our own and shop well in advance or during the day when running errands… mostly me, since I am not working.
If indeed, Adama is the problem in any job she’s held, then yes it is a problem but there are workarounds: her coming in late and staying late.
I am a strong proponent of letting people be who they are and working around them if they are good people. If Adama only works about 6 hours a day, why not let her come in much later and she can leave in late afternoon. So long as she completes all her tasks.
Adama likes to sleep in, yes! Yes! But do we know and understand why? I don’t think she is lazy or a sloth, but she might be in position of powerlessness and this might be her coping mechanism or could very well be a cry for help, yet it’s ignored by most, if not all.
I believe Adama shows lack of interest in the work she performs coz it’s not what she had aspired to do with her life! I don’t know what her dreams and ambitions are, but it can’t be this: working as a maid for pennies. Recently, in a conversation with my sister, I found out that Adama was a good student until 10th grade when she dropped out coz she wanted to live life beyond her village, so she moved to Dakar in search of better and of other!
Maids in Senegal don’t make much. The salaries are so low, that I don’t foresee any of them to be happy with this livelihood. There are just happy people in general who smile no matter, but that’s not the majority. Maids can’t but take these offers until something better comes along. I have seen many work disgruntled coz it might be demeaning, not their first choice, and not fulfilling.
I think the society is not addressing the root cause of the problem, nor if we have identified it for that matter. What could it be? I don’t know that it’s one thing, but it’s a combination of many.
If you want to run your household, you have to work. You go to work, but your household needs to be maintained. You hire someone to keep an eye on your household. You, yourself don’t make much, and so you can’t afford to pay your maid much. Your maid, on the other hand, was pulled out of school to be of help to her family. Now of age, she has to fend for herself and sed family. Getting a job with a degree is already competitive, let alone if you were not schooled! so you settle for a job, any job! At this point, society has already declared what is the going rate for a maid within the senegalese community regardless if the household is wealthy or not! Those wealthy households might offer additional perks, but I doubt it’s salary: it might be comfort, food, accommodation and what not, but not money. Those maids who work with expats, I find are the ones who complain the least… Not to say that their conditions are the best, but more tolerable, I would say.
Just how much do maids make in Senegal… The going rate seems to be around $100 a month! and with that $30 go to rent, and that’s living with roommates, unless they are many to share the room, another $30 for transportation, food is kinda taken care of if the household provides breakfast and lunch, then factor in your own personal needs, and last but not least taking care of your family back in the village or here in Dakar if you’re from a modest family… How can one expect anyone with this modest/offensive/ridiculous salary to have a standard of living AND a standard of life!? Where’s the national union for the maids? Who do they take it up to when they are abused by their employers? Who looks out for them when their payday comes in late?
In an ideal world… working as a maid would equate to working at McDonalds, or being a babysitter… It’s a job (emphasis on job, here… and not career) you take on in your spare time, or to make extra cash in the summertime, or when in between employment or to supplement a low income, but not as a way to sustain yourself for the remaining of your days. I had high hopes that things would change by the time I return home, but alas, some things just don’t change and/or have not changed. I want to be clear on why I think working as a maid in this country should be a job, and not a career, coz unless this position comes with full pension with all benefits, namely health insurance and retirement, then I don’t want refer to it as a career.
I have, since I got back, been criticized for being an idealist… I beg to differ, I just like to think of myself as being fair, and wouldn’t want to be in this condition therefore don’t wish for anyone to be in it. I do wish for change for all the maids in this country and I would like to help, but I have no idea where to begin nor how to!
What I do fear… for the tech revolution that’s headed towards us, many of these maids are just not prepared for what’s to come, I doubt that they even know that a lot of them are about to be displaced as technology will take over… Beyond WhatsApp and Facebook, they don’t know much about the tech world, and what little bit they know is for their entertainment.
Life, as we know, is not fair… and even less fair for maids in this country. Most of them are hurting deep down inside, and I know that a human touch would be a long way in appeasing their pain: acknowledging them and seeing them for who they are not what they do.
