While I continue the hunt for a house maid, I have been using a cleaning agency to help keep the house clean. Dubai abounds with these agencies who offer maids for just about anything - cleaning to party helpers to baby sitters et all.
Have a young Filipina called Christine who comes to me from a cleaning agency. She does a 4 hour shift with me every alternate day, and, if you've tried cleaning the house, doing the dishes etc you will know that 4 hours is a really long stretch. So I usually insist that she has a coffee or tea break after 2 hours and make herself a sandwich or if she is feeling really hungry she is free to help herself to some rice and curry / vegetables or whatever may be there in the fridge.
One such break, we got chatting. It appears that's the agency who hired her, did so with the promise of AED 1500 per month but when she got here, the contract she signed was for far less. The agency gives her accommodation, a salary of AED 600 and a monthly food allowance of AED 200. The maids all live in "labour camps" yup, that's what they are called, which have 10-12 maids to a room, though the rooms are air-conditioned. Surprisingly they are not allowed to cook, and, have to buy ready, cooked food, so the AED 200 doesn't really go a very long way. Hence, the coffee and the sandwich that she has, is very welcome. Now I am not sure how much of what she said was 100% true, but these stories keep popping up far too often to not merit a consideration.
The conversation left me feeling terribly apologetic about how comfortable my life was, and wondering about the wide divergence that exists in Dubai. I can't remember where I read this, but Dubai is really a segmented society with a huge difference between the "have nots" and the "have yachts". Rather appropriate I think!
In economic terms, the Emiratis I suspect are top of the heap, prosperity for many been aided by being sleeping partners or otherwise in almost all business (at least in the initial stages) and the workers from the Asia forming the bottom of the heap, with a whole load of expats in the middle, and, their lifestyles are a reflection of this segmentation.
Coming from a developing nation, you are not a stranger to poverty, or a wide disparity in income levels, but somehow there is something very poignant and heart breaking about coming to work to a foreign land with hopes and dreams of bettering your lot in life, and unfortunately waking up to a familiar sense of drudgery and fatalism.
Have a young Filipina called Christine who comes to me from a cleaning agency. She does a 4 hour shift with me every alternate day, and, if you've tried cleaning the house, doing the dishes etc you will know that 4 hours is a really long stretch. So I usually insist that she has a coffee or tea break after 2 hours and make herself a sandwich or if she is feeling really hungry she is free to help herself to some rice and curry / vegetables or whatever may be there in the fridge.
One such break, we got chatting. It appears that's the agency who hired her, did so with the promise of AED 1500 per month but when she got here, the contract she signed was for far less. The agency gives her accommodation, a salary of AED 600 and a monthly food allowance of AED 200. The maids all live in "labour camps" yup, that's what they are called, which have 10-12 maids to a room, though the rooms are air-conditioned. Surprisingly they are not allowed to cook, and, have to buy ready, cooked food, so the AED 200 doesn't really go a very long way. Hence, the coffee and the sandwich that she has, is very welcome. Now I am not sure how much of what she said was 100% true, but these stories keep popping up far too often to not merit a consideration.
The conversation left me feeling terribly apologetic about how comfortable my life was, and wondering about the wide divergence that exists in Dubai. I can't remember where I read this, but Dubai is really a segmented society with a huge difference between the "have nots" and the "have yachts". Rather appropriate I think!
In economic terms, the Emiratis I suspect are top of the heap, prosperity for many been aided by being sleeping partners or otherwise in almost all business (at least in the initial stages) and the workers from the Asia forming the bottom of the heap, with a whole load of expats in the middle, and, their lifestyles are a reflection of this segmentation.
Coming from a developing nation, you are not a stranger to poverty, or a wide disparity in income levels, but somehow there is something very poignant and heart breaking about coming to work to a foreign land with hopes and dreams of bettering your lot in life, and unfortunately waking up to a familiar sense of drudgery and fatalism.
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