Temos uma empregada!!!

This week Catherine and I had our first experiences with an empregada. That means housekeeper in Portuguese. For the first two months here in Maputo, Catherine and I struggled with our issues of employing someone here to take care of our apartment. To me, the idea of having a “servant,” especially one that was black and female while I am white and male, was difficult for me to accept. I felt that I would have a hard time dealing with the inevitable power dynamic that would be tilted in my favour. I’ve always reluctantly approached situations where I was the “boss.” Now I had somebody working for me…in my own house!! How would I handle this? What would I say to her?

Eventually we convinced ourselves that it was worse for us not to have a housekeeper. We certainly had the means to support somebody to do it, and the work employs a ton of women here in Maputo. It’s quite common place and nobody here thinks anything of it. In the end we decided to support the Mozambican economy rather than hold onto out misplaced North American notions of pride and self-respect.

So now we have Rebecca, and things couldn’t be better. In all honesty, the woman’s domestic skills defy all limits of logic and expectation. Our floors have never been cleaner, our clothes have never softer, our food has never been more fresh, our rooms have never been tidier and our bugs have never been more absent. She easily deserves 100 medals in my eyes. And she doesn’t speak a lick of English which is great because Cathy and I both need to be pushed harder to speak more Portuguese. She is kind and beautiful and has a nine year old daughter named Elsa. She hasn’t had a job in quite awhile and is tremendously happy to have the opportunity to work for us. I know that I am going to get totally spoiled by this!!