The girl here was asked to warm water for the boy. She went outside crying. That is all my sister can say. The truth is that water was ready some minutes ago and when the boy was called to bath he wasted time and the water became cold. If the boy was a brother to the girl, she should have pulled the stubborn boy by the ear to the bath when water was still warm. When sister asked whether she was wrong to ask, I resumed my reading.
To avoid confusion, let me call my sister Hoho and the house help Haha. Hoho cannot remember the number of Hahas she has had. The first Haha came in barely ten years ago. My sister had she existed in 1880s she’d be a slave owner. The way she distributes tasks, lazies around and defends herself would make her domineering in a polygamous marriage.
Our mother spoke of moments that when we were young our Haha ran away locking us in the house. When she came in after work she found us swimming in urine and poo poo. We had cried our last tear and slept in desperation. I thank God she was retrenched. She could have brought in another Haha who could have forced the spoon down our throats when we refused food.
We have had cases where Hohos of this world treat the Hahas unfairly. The vice versa has been more as revenge in futility. Pussy fluids have been smeared on plates, husbands offered free sex, young boys raped and other forms of abuse. Not all households deserve house helps. Get a househelp when you cannot manage without one. We have single roomed houses that consider housing a house girl.
What a Haha does is what a wife and mother should do. A Hoho should rise up early before husband and children, make the house, wake up the family for breakfast! A Haha who bangs everything when she wakes up and let the taps run as if a cow was urinating is depressed. Should she see the husband in a towel heading to the bathroom? Should sit at the table for breakfast? Should she extend her hand to offer a sugar spoon? It keeps the Hoho so insecure that all she does is to observe any eye works between.
House girls are illegal in my view. They are inexperienced young people who seek for means in their lives. Washing utensils, wiping children asses and doing laundry does not auger well with their future ambitions. The amount they are paid is enough to feed one hen only. Had most of these girls stayed at the tutelage of their parents or given better opportunities, pregnancies and other sabotages of their age would be limited.
The loneliness that they acquire during the few months in a place they loved not is enough to give them life nightmares. When a girl leaves the rural for a job in the city it could be a cheap household task organized by a relative to a friend. The peanuts gained were better revoked with wholesome rural tasks of going to the river, fetching firewood and serving one’s father or mother.
Haha and Hoho happen to call for each other. In a way nature sends the gazelle where the python is. What happens at the end is justice to nature- murder!
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