Babysitting

Hello,

After the first day I was there I was on my own for childcare and house cleaning. Luckily there was a phone that stayed with me so I was not totally cut off from the ability to ask questions. Generally that was not needed, but I felt better having the phone available.

The first cleaning task was to clean my room that had not been touched in some time. The hardest part is being in someone else’s house and not knowing where clean rags are. That was next on the laundry list. I did manage to clean the shower, tub, toilet, and sink. Then I felt much better as now any dirt was my dirt. Sarah did hire someone else to come in and clean for three days. This cleaner used water much longer than I would have before changing it, but maybe I am careless with water.

That night we went to a farewell party for Sarah. It was held at her bosses beautiful house. Some people in Africa live very well while some do not. The contrast is huge. Leroy and I both had a bit of trouble with the disparity, although in Nairobi it is not so noticeable if you stay on the main streets. I would like to add a quote from my friend Ron Klug.

“Ron Klug wrote: When we were missionaries in Madagascar, which is a very poor country, we struggled a lot with being "rich" in a country of very poor people. I think we were making $3000 a year, but in a country where most families were making maybe $300, if they were lucky, so we were almost like millionaires. Some of the older missionaries just laughed at us, like, "You'll get over that soon enough." By American standards, we were living way below the poverty line--much, much lower than we did in Slovakia, very simple in terms of housing, food, transportation, clothes. No car, almost nothing to buy except locally grown food , only the clothes and "beauty supplies" and feminine products that we had brought with us. But I knew that the camera around my neck would feed a Malagasy family for months, maybe even a year. And some of our students (missionary kids) drove motorcycles that were signs of great wealth, way beyond what any Malagasy family could even dream of. Our children had many changes of clothes, when Malagasy kids were lucky to have one outfit, and that would have been like a pair of striped underpants. We lived in a huge old wooden house (although it was infested with lizards, giant roaches, rats, huge spiders, and an occasional boa constrictor).

One Catholic priest was so bothered by the disparity that he tried to live at the level of a Malagasy family, in housing and food, but within weeks got so sick that he couldn’t work. So he decided that part of humility is to recognize what we as Westerners need to do our work.
We at least tried to spread the wealth around a bit by being generous, hiring workers. Some of the older missionaries were always afraid of being taken advantage of by the beggars. Some agricultural missionaries thought it was wrong for us to have servants, so they fired all of theirs.
So they kept their consciences pure, while the people starved. We tried to hire as many as possible, as yard workers, cooks, babysitters, laundry workers, but never felt altogether comfortable with being bosses either.
Even after four years we did not adjust to a situation in which we still had a closet full of clothes, when some people had only rags. I think the main struggle is to stay aware, to not let yourself be hardened or indifferent to the differences. Of course, the gap exists for us every day now too, but it is not so visible.
One result of living in Madagascar is that it made us forever more grateful for simple things, like plenty of good water, fresh milk, a piece of cheese, toilet paper!”

These are just some ideas to think about.

Paula