Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Who is in my shower?

my knight in shining armor comes in the form of a late 20's, Senegalese lady who comes to my house 3x a week.  we call her Therese. 

oh the things she does!  she cleans. goes to the market and gets fresh fruits and vegetables. cleans and cuts the produce. watches my children.  takes me to the fabric market and barters for low prices, helps me with my french. and is a seamstress by trade. 
on top of that she has a great personality and i really like her!  it is amazing how God answers prayers. before we even came to Senegal, kyle had on his prayer list to help us find a good fit for us in regards to househelp. Voila! or maybe an Amen!

most of the missionaries in Dakar have househelp in some form. whether they come for a full day, 1/2 days, or have cooks. 

it is pretty well expected that us, as white(toubabs) americans, would and should have househelp. we are quite wealthy in comparison and it is seen as right for us to share our wealth.

therese came to us by a recommendation of an employee at Dakar Academy. Therese cleans for them 2 days a week and was looking for more work. i found out on a Weds that my previous help was no longer available and on Friday Therese was at my door by 8am. No interview or contract or background check...

Some oddities of house help are that they leave a pair of shoes at your house and take showers in your bathroom before they go for the day. Senegalese deem outward appearence as very important so Therese will show up for work looking all fancy. Head straight to the bathroom and come out 5 mins later ready to work.


We definetly have some language barrier issues, but for the most part everything gets done eventually. so what if i end up with 4 green peppers when i asked for pears. or it takes us 5 trips to 2 stores over a course of 3 hours to get 1 frozen chicken. we are making it work and am pretty sure i am going to desperately miss her when we are back in the states!

faith

5 comments:

Amanda said...

Could you just bring her back here with you? She sounds wonderful!

cheri said...

We had a house helper when I was growing up in Japan, and my mom (who is 85) still exchanges letters with her 50 years later. Maybe Therese will always be in your life.

Maggie said...

Good one :)

Andrea said...

Love this :) It's great that you have the help you need as well as another (adult) human you can interact with often.
Still miss you guys, though.
Love to you and the whole brood.

Danica Favorite said...

Sounds wonderful!!

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