31 days: the post I've been avoiding

I’m not going to make it very far in this series without telling you that I have a houseworker. 

I’ve avoided even mentioning this on the blog for a long time, because I felt that it warranted an explanation of sorts. So here’s the explanation.

I’m American. And, in America we are independent. We don’t need help and we work ourselves to death because it’s not right to rest. Ever. Ok that was an exaggeration, but not by much. We seriously have this complex about hard work.

We think that if we have a second to breath we should be accomplishing something.

I think it is a cultural view, but we have the power to accept it or reject it. Too often I accept it and try to live up to unrealistic goals. Hiring a houseworker was not something that I really wanted to do. So why did I do it?

It is very appropriate in Tanzanian culture. 

It provides a job to someone. We have people at our gate every week asking for work. There’s just not enough to go around. We can’t hire them all, but we do employ our houseworker and several guys who help serve as night guards, cook for the dogs, cut the grass, help Carson with video stuff, etc.

I couldn’t do it by myself. There is just no way I could care for my kids, hang, remove, fold all the laundry, wash all the dishes, mop all the floors (this is needed every day almost because when your AC is open windows and the roads aren’t paved the dust is ridiculous.), cook all the food... you get the point.

So I don’t. I don’t do it alone.

Because my sanity is more important than my independence.

And it was HARD at the beginning. It was not normal to me and I did NOT like it! Having someone in my house all day, seeing when I burn the rice, or put the clothes in the washer but forget to start it, or slip on the back steps and bust it! Plus my language wasn’t always good enough to explain. Before Jude was born there were times when we would give our worker Friday and Monday off, because I needed a break from having someone in my house. 

So what does having a house worker have to do with 31 days in my kitchen?

Elizabeti helps with all manner of things in the kitchen. She washes dishes, cooks beans and rice everyday for the other workers (and us), makes tortillas, English muffins, and bagels, and holds the baby when he just won’t nap long enough for me to finish kneading the bread. There is a real flow to it at this point. Elizabeti gets me. She constantly sees things that need to be done and just does them. She sings while she works and it is beautiful. In fact, Carson just recorded her singing for the short film, Grace. She also acts in it, which she did incredibly. She is a true gift to our family and our work.