I am beginning to see why so many people hate housework. We have been living in Zambia since September and since I don’t work, and our housekeeper turned out to be the worst, I decided it would be better if I did the household chores.
We don’t have a washing machine or a vacuum cleaner, we have to hand wash our clothes and sweep up – no carpets. It’s not so much that it’s hard work (and I am still piling on the pounds despite the sweat I build up), it’s the sheer futility of it. You sweep, you mop, you scrub and a day later you have to do it all again. Neither or I nor my husband are especially fastidious people but we live next to a construction site in a city that is already very dusty and as hard as I might try, the next day our living room resembles something Mrs. Haversham would be proud of.
Lusaka has no pavements, many of the roads are not tarmac, all you have to do is walk down the road and it’s like you brought a desert back on your shoes. And forget about wearing nice clothes, they get dirty and grimey and then fall apart from the rigours or hand washing.
So why don’t we have a cleaner? This is a tough one for many ex-pats or middle class folk here and there is no easy solution. Personally I found have a cleaner on her hands and knees scrubbing while I lazed around doing little seemed downright perverse. Perhaps if I didn’t work from home freelance I would feel differently. To be sure I had cleaners when I lived in Zambia before, but I was a young volunteer with lots to do and loved coming home to a clean house – who wouldn’t? I was quite lucky with my cleaners, only one out of the 3 I had took things (and I had 3 because I moved 3 times) and they never asked me for additional help. However the cleaner we had when we moved to Lusaka, not only cleaned worse than me, but constantly needed extra money for problems at home. And this seems to be quite common, it’s almost as if you are adopted by the people who work for you. A friend of mine who studied anthropology says it’s to do with the idea patronage. I’m not too clear on the details but it seems that in some cultures it’s commonly assumed that those with more will look out for those with less. Ex-pats are of course those with more. Although I am still not a fan of the practice, it does make me understanding of the situation here rather than just assuming I’m being taken for a ride. Despite the dust and hand washing though, I still have no plans to get a cleaner.
