So, last time, I reported on everyday things that I encounter in Brazil that I find amusing/will miss.
This time... I´ll talk about something that I encounter practically everyday, and although people here probably find this `normal,´ and I know I´m supposed to be open-minded to everything here for my cultural immersion, I´m quite content with myself questioning this one part of my Brazilian life and in turn, not accepting it, because it is just... not rightly-minded in my book.
All of the people in my program live with middle class (and possibly higher?) families, most of which have maids (empregadas domésticos). Some families have them come once, twice a week... everyday... or even weirder, some maids actually LIVE with the families. These women are all of the lower class, meaning - in Brazilian terms - that they are of African descent, and probably completed a lower-than-high-school education. Some women are from here (Salvador, the city), while others probably come from the `interior,´ where there are no jobs at all. Most of the time, the maids are apparently not under a contract with their employees - thus, they are not necessarily guaranteed insurance, social security benefits, or even minimum wage. However, most of them have no choice but to work as maids, since they do not have enough of an education to work elsewhere (our guest-professor [below] said that you need at least a high school education to work in a sewing/clothing factory).
Last week in our culture class, our guest-professor (a feminist from the University of Bahia) spoke to us about women in Brazil: voting, domestic violence, education, salaries, involvement in politics... And of course, our guest-professor spoke about `domestic workers,´since all of us US students have actually seen them in our apartments. And I was really glad when our guest-professor addressed the issue of how she´s a feminist, yet has a maid in her house: kind of hypocritical, não, for someone who´s all for women´s rights? And yet, I was a little disappointed by her reply - that, in a way, she´s supporting her maid by offering her a job that she needs?
See, in my apartment, I´m not quite sure how to comment on the treatment of our maid, Laura.
Whenever Laura comes (which is around 6:30 in the morning), she helps make breakfast, prepare lunch, wash clothes, wash dishes, wash the windows, sweep and wash the floors, clean the bedrooms and bathrooms... everyday... then leaves around 4-5pm or so. At least, in my house, Laura and my host mom (let´s just call her HM, for short) seem to prepare meals together - well, it´s more like Laura chopping up things, then my HM putting the things together and adding the seasoning. In other houses, I´ve heard of some people´s maids cooking things all day, then putting them in freezable containers, for the HM´s to just heat up for later - thus, THEIR HM´s never cook.
Another weird thing is that while I´m eating breakfast or lunch with my HM, Laura is just kind of standing there in the kitchen, ready to bring us a spoon, or clean my plate inbetween different foods (so that the flavours won´t mix?? Example: I was eating pineapple, so the plate had a ton of pineapple juice still on it - and then I wanted to eat some toast or grilled bananas, so Laura washed my plate in a second and gave it back to me...) - which is nice, BUT... who would seriously get up to clean their plate like that in the US, each time? Anyways. Laura kind of just stands there, watching us eat, waits for us to finish and leave the kitchen, and THEN she eats by herself.
While I want to say that this social inequality is only minor - since, it seems like Laura and my HM get along most of the time, since they joke around and seem to have fun in the kitchen, together - there have been times when I´ve felt uncomfortable, but had no choice but to just nod in agreement or say nothing at all. As I was leaving the house 2 days ago, for example, I was literally just stepping out of the door, when my HM stopped me and pointed out to me some areas in the kitchen that were a little dirty, as a result of Laura being `lazy´ and having to be told where to clean, or else she won´t clean it. However, I found these supposedly dirt-infested places to be ridiculous, since my HM pointed out:
1. a little spot behind the oven.
2. an upper corner of the kitchen wall, where seriously, my eyes would never really wander off to...
3. the door - had a little bit of a streak from where Laura had washed it, but apparently not well enough..
Besides the fact that these places were just, again, ridiculous, I just find this to be killing me, since it just makes me feel like Laura´s a victim of back-stabbing, or just, in general, common respect. Laura is probably about 50 years old or so, African-Brazilian, and she´s a really nice lady who loves to whistle and joke around (although her accent is a bit thick and I have trouble understanding.. haha!) with me. She´s human, and yet, she does her job really well, at least in my opinion (which is perhaps not saying much, since I´ve never had a maid in my house in the US). I at least think that my HM should appreciate all that Laura has done, and not criticize her for things that are just ridiculous - or.... perhaps, I´m afraid to say this.... this is just the norm in Brazil?
Although Laura used to come in everyday of the week to repeat this cycle of serving us, I think that my HM got mad at her for some reason, and basically told Laura to not come back (this was about 2 weeks back). That day when I came back from school, I went to the bathroom and the sink didn´t work... so I told my HM, and she automatically blamed Laura for it. For which, I thought was crazy/rude that my HM should just automatically blame Laura for anything. However, my `sister´(from Illinois, who was still here) kind of laughed and said that it probably was Laura, and that she was glad that she did it.
Now that I look back, I too must say and admit.. touché, Laura. Good job for striking back.
BTW:
1. Bathroom sink problem was quickly solved by just turning the water switch from off --> on to the bathroom.
2. After Laura striked back, my HM surprisingly was able to maintain the apartment pretty well, cleaning/washing all over the place... however...
3. Laura is back- although, she only comes twice a week, now.
This time... I´ll talk about something that I encounter practically everyday, and although people here probably find this `normal,´ and I know I´m supposed to be open-minded to everything here for my cultural immersion, I´m quite content with myself questioning this one part of my Brazilian life and in turn, not accepting it, because it is just... not rightly-minded in my book.
All of the people in my program live with middle class (and possibly higher?) families, most of which have maids (empregadas domésticos). Some families have them come once, twice a week... everyday... or even weirder, some maids actually LIVE with the families. These women are all of the lower class, meaning - in Brazilian terms - that they are of African descent, and probably completed a lower-than-high-school education. Some women are from here (Salvador, the city), while others probably come from the `interior,´ where there are no jobs at all. Most of the time, the maids are apparently not under a contract with their employees - thus, they are not necessarily guaranteed insurance, social security benefits, or even minimum wage. However, most of them have no choice but to work as maids, since they do not have enough of an education to work elsewhere (our guest-professor [below] said that you need at least a high school education to work in a sewing/clothing factory).
Last week in our culture class, our guest-professor (a feminist from the University of Bahia) spoke to us about women in Brazil: voting, domestic violence, education, salaries, involvement in politics... And of course, our guest-professor spoke about `domestic workers,´since all of us US students have actually seen them in our apartments. And I was really glad when our guest-professor addressed the issue of how she´s a feminist, yet has a maid in her house: kind of hypocritical, não, for someone who´s all for women´s rights? And yet, I was a little disappointed by her reply - that, in a way, she´s supporting her maid by offering her a job that she needs?
See, in my apartment, I´m not quite sure how to comment on the treatment of our maid, Laura.
Whenever Laura comes (which is around 6:30 in the morning), she helps make breakfast, prepare lunch, wash clothes, wash dishes, wash the windows, sweep and wash the floors, clean the bedrooms and bathrooms... everyday... then leaves around 4-5pm or so. At least, in my house, Laura and my host mom (let´s just call her HM, for short) seem to prepare meals together - well, it´s more like Laura chopping up things, then my HM putting the things together and adding the seasoning. In other houses, I´ve heard of some people´s maids cooking things all day, then putting them in freezable containers, for the HM´s to just heat up for later - thus, THEIR HM´s never cook.
Another weird thing is that while I´m eating breakfast or lunch with my HM, Laura is just kind of standing there in the kitchen, ready to bring us a spoon, or clean my plate inbetween different foods (so that the flavours won´t mix?? Example: I was eating pineapple, so the plate had a ton of pineapple juice still on it - and then I wanted to eat some toast or grilled bananas, so Laura washed my plate in a second and gave it back to me...) - which is nice, BUT... who would seriously get up to clean their plate like that in the US, each time? Anyways. Laura kind of just stands there, watching us eat, waits for us to finish and leave the kitchen, and THEN she eats by herself.
While I want to say that this social inequality is only minor - since, it seems like Laura and my HM get along most of the time, since they joke around and seem to have fun in the kitchen, together - there have been times when I´ve felt uncomfortable, but had no choice but to just nod in agreement or say nothing at all. As I was leaving the house 2 days ago, for example, I was literally just stepping out of the door, when my HM stopped me and pointed out to me some areas in the kitchen that were a little dirty, as a result of Laura being `lazy´ and having to be told where to clean, or else she won´t clean it. However, I found these supposedly dirt-infested places to be ridiculous, since my HM pointed out:
1. a little spot behind the oven.
2. an upper corner of the kitchen wall, where seriously, my eyes would never really wander off to...
3. the door - had a little bit of a streak from where Laura had washed it, but apparently not well enough..
Besides the fact that these places were just, again, ridiculous, I just find this to be killing me, since it just makes me feel like Laura´s a victim of back-stabbing, or just, in general, common respect. Laura is probably about 50 years old or so, African-Brazilian, and she´s a really nice lady who loves to whistle and joke around (although her accent is a bit thick and I have trouble understanding.. haha!) with me. She´s human, and yet, she does her job really well, at least in my opinion (which is perhaps not saying much, since I´ve never had a maid in my house in the US). I at least think that my HM should appreciate all that Laura has done, and not criticize her for things that are just ridiculous - or.... perhaps, I´m afraid to say this.... this is just the norm in Brazil?
Although Laura used to come in everyday of the week to repeat this cycle of serving us, I think that my HM got mad at her for some reason, and basically told Laura to not come back (this was about 2 weeks back). That day when I came back from school, I went to the bathroom and the sink didn´t work... so I told my HM, and she automatically blamed Laura for it. For which, I thought was crazy/rude that my HM should just automatically blame Laura for anything. However, my `sister´(from Illinois, who was still here) kind of laughed and said that it probably was Laura, and that she was glad that she did it.
Now that I look back, I too must say and admit.. touché, Laura. Good job for striking back.
BTW:
1. Bathroom sink problem was quickly solved by just turning the water switch from off --> on to the bathroom.
2. After Laura striked back, my HM surprisingly was able to maintain the apartment pretty well, cleaning/washing all over the place... however...
3. Laura is back- although, she only comes twice a week, now.
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YOU GO WESTRIDGE WOMAN!! great points you made all the way :)
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