阿鲁沙坦桑尼亚2006第12天-女佣

It's weird to have a maid. For me as a middle-class American at least. My sister-in-law is also comfortably middle-class, by Tanzanian standards. She works as an Administrative Assistant for the UN...more on that in another post. It's a great job, she does great work, and they rent a lovely stone house where we are blessed to be staying.

有个女佣真奇怪。 至少对于我作为中产阶级的美国人而言。 按照坦桑尼亚的标准，我的sister子也是中产阶级。 她是联合国的行政助理，详情请参阅另一篇文章。 这是一项出色的工作，她的工作也很出色，他们租了一个漂亮的石头房子，我们很幸运能住在这里。

With "middleclassedness" in Africa, often comes help around the house. My wife's other sister (Mo is 4th of 7 kids) and her husband were teachers in Zimbabwe and they had a maid. Even folks in the "lower-middle class" in Africa always seem to be able to find a maid. Sometimes the maid is someone who comes by for a few hours in the middle of the day, and might be the maid for two or three families, but just as often the maid is a live-in. Many times the maid is someone from just a bit further out of town than you live, and by hiring them as help you're getting them that much closer to town. The maid in this house sleeps and eats here six days a week, and takes Sunday off for church and family. She's very kind, and very quiet, but as is with the maids I've personally met in Africa, submissive isn't the word, rather deferential in all cases to the other members of the house. A maid might work with you for years, but they are an employee first, and possibly a family member second.

在非洲，随着“中产阶级”的到来，房子周围经常会有帮助。 我妻子的另一个姐姐(莫是7个孩子中的第4个)和她的丈夫是津巴布韦的老师，他们有一个女仆。 甚至非洲“中下阶层”的人似乎总是能够找到女佣。 有时，女佣会在一天中的某个小时来临，可能是两个或三个家庭的女佣，但女佣经常是住在家里的。 在很多情况下，女佣是一个离您比住的地方远一些的人，通过雇用他们作为帮助，您可以使他们离城市更近。 这座房子里的女仆每周六天在这里睡觉和吃饭，并于周日休假给教堂和家人。 她很友善，也很安静，但是就像我在非洲亲自遇到的女佣一样，顺从不是这个词，而是在所有情况下都尊重房子的其他成员。 女佣可能会与您合作多年，但他们首先是雇员，其次可能是家庭成员。

In the states, if you wanted a full-time live-in maid, you'd be paying around USD$25,000 to USD$40,000 to start, not to mention benefits. For nearly everyone this is not only beyond our means, but just an insane amount of money. You can hire a "merry maid" to come by once a week and do the floors and bathrooms and dust, but that'll be at least $50, usually $100 a month, and they don't do dishes or windows. Every country's economy is different, but a maid in Africa might make as little as US$20 a month, or as much as US$100 or more. Still, a far cry from the middle class.

在美国，如果您想要一个专职的女佣，则要支付大约25,000美元至40,000美元才能开始，更不用说福利了。 对于几乎每个人来说，这不仅超出了我们的承受能力，而且还只是一笔疯狂的钱。 您可以雇一个“快乐的女佣”，每周一次，做地板，浴室和灰尘，但这至少要50美元，通常是每月100美元，他们不做餐具或窗户。 每个国家的经济都不尽相同，但非洲的一个女佣每月的收入可能低至20美元，甚至可能高达100美元以上。 不过，与中产阶级相去甚远。

The maids on this continent are really home-managers. Everything is handled, from meals to laundry to cleaning. There's also often a gardener or general handy-man who comes by in the daytime and is "the man when the man isn't around" and handles repairs and landscaping of the 25foot by 25foot patch of grass.

这个大陆上的女佣确实是家庭管理员。 从饭菜到洗衣再到清洁，一切都得到了处理。 通常还有一个园丁或一般的杂物工在白天来，是“男人不在时的男人”，负责25英尺乘25英尺草丛的修复和美化。

As an aside, not only does the power go out each day, but the water, as I'd mentioned before, comes from a large tank above the house. Turns out there's actually two tanks. One under the ground - a giant cistern - and the tank above. The city water comes in only once every 4 days - sometimes there's gaps as long as two weeks - and is buffered (my word) into this giant cistern. There's a large sturdy plastic balloon on the end of a thick wire - a ballast, just like in an American toilet, that floats up when the tank is full, indicating to the system to stop taking in the city water. Then the handy-man turns on a pump and sends the water up to the tank on top of the house. In the morning around 6am, the maid turns on a temporary water heater - everyone is very focused on conservation, naturally, and saves water and power religiously - and stores very hot water in a 30 liter or so container that stores wicked-hot water for the whole house.

顺便说一句，不仅每天都会断电，而且正如我前面提到的，水是从房屋上方的一个大水箱中流出的。 原来实际上有两个坦克。 一个在地下-一个巨大的水箱-和上面的坦克。 城市的水每4天才进水一次-有时会有长达两周的缺口-并被缓冲到这个巨大的水箱中。 粗电线的末端有一个坚固的大塑料气球-压载物，就像在美国厕所中一样，在水箱装满后会浮起来，指示系统停止取水。 然后，杂物工打开泵，将水送至房屋顶部的水箱。 凌晨6点左右，女仆打开了一个临时热水器-每个人自然都非常关注自然保护，并认真地节水和用电-并在30升左右的容器中储存非常热水，该容器用于储存邪恶的热水。整个房子。

Since we are numbering 11 in the house, we're stacked to the rafters, and I had a lovely cold shower this morning. Cold trickle, rather, but it, and I, was wet, so I consider it a dramatic success. I woke up at 7:30am, a little late, and because I didn't jump at the first shower, I lost. My wife had a stunning (she reported) hot shower. Of course, this house happily and comfortably supports a family of 4, but we're straining it a bit.

由于我们房子的编号是11，所以我们被堆放在the子上了，今天早上我洗了个可爱的冷水澡。 相反，冷滴流，但它和我湿透了，所以我认为这是巨大的成功。 我在早上7:30醒来，有点迟了，因为第一次淋浴时我没有跳，所以我迷路了。 我的妻子(她报告)洗了个惊人的热水澡。 当然，这所房子愉快，舒适地支撑着一个4口之家，但我们对此有些压力。

Back to the maid. We (the white folks, meaning, mostly my parents) are having a little trouble with it. I'm personally used it having traveled a smidge, but my parents, having traveled as much as a typical West Coast-born individual (from Vancouver, BC to Tijuana, Mexico, so, exactly, nowhere. ;) ) aren't used to the "distance" and caste-like system that is so pointed outside the states. There may be some liberal "White Guilt" involved, but I doubt it in this case as the castes (my word in this case) exist very often without color. I've never personally visited or lived in a White African's house who has Black help working for them (although there's many of course), while I've personally visited dozens of Black Africans' homes with other Black African folks working for them. This is fundamentally about the separation between the knowledge worker and the laborer, it seems. I suspect in the States, that many people (more than just the very rich) would hire maids to work and live with them if it were possible to pay them a non-U.S.-minimum wage and if the market and society watchful eye would bear it. In this case, as we visit, we have mostly "middle class" guilt. We're all very lucky, and if you're reading this blog, by definition and example, you are fortunate as well. 

回到女仆。 我们(白人，主要是我的父母)在遇到一些麻烦。 我个人曾用它旅行过，但我的父母却不曾旅行过，就像一个典型的西海岸出生的人(从不列颠哥伦比亚省温哥华到墨西哥提华纳，所以，确切地，无处。))指向国家以外的“距离”和种姓制度。 可能涉及一些自由派的“白色内lt ”，但在这种情况下我对此表示怀疑，因为种姓(在这种情况下我的话)经常无色地存在。 我从来没有亲自拜访过或居住在有黑人帮助的白人非洲人的房屋中(尽管当然有很多)，而我却与其他黑人非洲人一起为他们服务了数十个黑人非洲人的房屋。 看来，这从根本上讲是关于知识工作者和劳工之间的分离。 我怀疑在美国，如果有可能支付女佣非美国最低工资，并且如果市场和社会保持警惕，那么很多人(不仅仅是非常富有的人)会雇用女佣与他们一起生活。它。 在这种情况下，当我们访问时，我们大多会感到“中产阶级”的内gui。 我们都很幸运，如果您通过定义和示例阅读此博客，那么您也很幸运。

My dad was a firefigher for thirty years and had odd jobs on the side. My mom was a zookeeper amongst other things. My mom puts it best: "Your father spend the last 30 years responding. He has to help. He doesn't know how not to." So, here in Tanzania, Dad's running all over the house fixing stuff. Not that things are breaking more than anywhere else, but you know how it is. A knob here, a clogged faucet there, standard house stuff. He's fantastic at this stuff. I think that the maid and handyman are reveling in the enthusiasm of this upbeat, very compentent, old(er) White guy. I'm enjoying the whole spectacle, myself. I one day hope to be as handy and as much a people-person as my Dad.

我父亲是一名救火工人已有30年了，在旁边有零工。 我妈妈是一位动物园管理员。 我妈妈说得最好： “您父亲过去30年一直在回应。他必须提供帮助。他不知道该怎么做。” 因此，在坦桑尼亚，爸爸在整座房子里跑来跑去修理东西。 并不是说事情破裂得比其他任何地方都多，但是你知道它是怎么回事。 这里有一个旋钮，那里有一个堵塞的水龙头，标准的家用东西。 他在这方面太神奇了。 我认为女仆和杂工正在陶醉于这个乐观，乐于助人，年纪大的白人的热情。 我很喜欢整个奇观。 我有一天希望和我的父亲一样方便，成为一个人民。

From the maid's perspective, it's possible overstepping our bounds as house guests, Mo and I included, by doing chores as we think is appropriate. We've done the laundry (by hand out back), led by Mo's Mom. We sweep and mop and do the dishes, all the while with an askance look from the (again, very kind she is) maid. I guess it's a combination of our very American "we do it ourselves" style, along with my wife's very African "I need to be a contributing member of the household" style. Technically I assume the maid is supposed to do all these things, but we figure since the household has swollen in membership due to our arrival, it's only fair that we step up in some way. It seems to be working so far.

从女佣的角度来看，我和莫包括在内，通过做我们认为适当的琐事，有可能超越我们作为房客的界限。 我们已经洗完了衣服(用手退了)，由莫的妈妈带领。 我们一直打扫和拖把，然后洗碗，一直(女仆再次很友好)的样子。 我想这是我们非常美国的“我们自己做”的风格与我妻子非常非洲的“我需要成为家庭的一员”风格的结合。 从技术上讲，我认为女仆应该做所有这些事情，但是我们认为，由于我们的到来，家庭成员膨胀了，所以以某种方式加紧工作是很公平的。 到目前为止，它似乎一直在工作。

Our host, my sister-in-law, has been fantastic to open her home to us, and even though we've inadvertently sequestered a few family members to the couch and living room floor by our presense, the house and household are holding up nicely.

我们的房东，我的sister子，很高兴能向我们开放她的家，尽管我们无意中以自己的名义将一些家庭成员隔离在沙发和客厅的地板上，但房屋和家庭却举步维艰很好

I remember once in Zimbabwe I was kicked, rather forcefully, out of the kitchen of a Uncle of ours, for stopping in and offering to do the dishes. As the guest, and recent addition as son-in-law, my attempt to help was perceived as a bit odd and I narrowly avoided international incident. Not to mention when I sat on the ground rather than on the couch...I find the floor to be rather comfortable. Again, not cool when you're the visitor, it seems.

我记得一次在津巴布韦，我被强行踢出我们叔叔的厨房，原因是他停下脚步并愿意做菜。 作为客人，最近又被任命为女,，我的帮助尝试被认为有点奇怪，我勉强避免了国际事件。 更不用说当我坐在地上而不是在沙发上时...我觉得地板很舒服。 再次，当您是访客时，看起来并不酷。

I'd love to have a maid in the States, but I think that due to my overdeveloped sense of economic justice combined with a bit of, I fear, a socialist streak, it'll have to be a Robot Maid from the makers of the Roomba.

我很想在美国有个女仆，但我认为，由于我过分发展的经济正义感，加上我有点担心社会主义的连胜感，因此必须成为来自美国的女仆Roomba 。

翻译自: https://www.hanselman.com/blog/arusha-tanzania-2006-day-12-maids