Workers in Dubai,
In my previous chronicle I miss stated something about the water source. The sea water is filling in underground where the fresh water is disappearing. I am not sure about how much water is pulled from the gulf, but I do know that the fresh underground water is being replaced by the sea water.
We have figured out the garage sale circuit. People move so fast and often around here that sales are always to be found. The items are very familiar, very unusual and most are like new. One thing that is noticed right from the start is the number of nannies and house maids sifting through the items. I am so fascinated by the number of people who hire extra help and how it impacts their lives.
How do I start to tell you about the work that goes into finding domestic help?
Our gate bell rings often. The callers are mostly women looking for work. Some weeks we will have three to four callers and weeks will pass with no callers.
The women need or want work, part-time or full time. Some of them need sponsors as the present employer is moving or letting the visa expire and sending them home. One lady came to see me and only wanted to move her and her husband into the Maid’s Quarters. They both had full time jobs, would work every night three to four hours taking care of our yard and house for the opportunity to stay with us. I have many issues with this: First, when they offer and insist that they would be very happy to stay in that little room, they can’t: there is no room. Jim has shelves of stuff in there. We believe that the Maid’s Quarters is separate from the main house in order to protect the reputation of all involved. As Sharia law says that men and women who are not married or family need to be keep apart. Second, I don’t even know and understand how I acquired all of my legal paperwork to be here. How am I going to help someone else get theirs? Third, what if we let them move in, they are too much like me and we do not get along. I cannot just turn someone out onto the street. I would probably leave home first. This starts to get very complicated. I am very grateful for the weeks when nobody rings my gate bell looking for work.
I do not understand enough of how this all works to help them obtain the needed visa. It is very expensive as the sponsor must provide health insurance, pay for the visa, and the return flight home, upfront. There may be other expenses that I am not aware of. I just know that it can be over 10,000 dirham to process a housekeeper on our own.
It makes me sad to turn these people away. They just want to work and stay in Dubai. The housekeeper/nanny next door has left her little girl in the care of grandma in the Philippians in order to work. She will be able to go home soon. In this time she has paid to have a house built for her family and send her daughter to school. She has helped pull them up out of poverty.
So many workers, road workers, construction, security guards, gardeners, have left home and family to work here. They are doing what they can to provide a better life for their families. In the evenings we see buses of men being transported to the bachelor camps after a hard day of work. They are here by choice. I wish to stop every bus, invite them to my villa for coffee, cuisine, and company. I can only imagine how lonely they must be at times.
There are companies advertising housekeepers for hire. The nationality of each worker is listed. I have seen ads looking for housekeepers or nannies and certain nationalities seem to be preferred and the ad will say so.
I am very glad that I do not have to write the laws that protect the domestic workers or the employers. I can understand why the laws are written the way they are: the ones I am aware of. To some it may seem cruel, but it is necessary to keep order and to take care of everyone.
I have acquaintances that have tried six to eight different people before finding someone who fits in with the family. The employer has to have a copy of the workers passport and residency stamp.
Domestic workers have been abused here. Domestic workers have abused. What then?
They have been known to run away, to get pregnant (which is a big no-no if not married). The consequences can lead to one big mess. What if they are here illegally? Some of these people come here and are forced into prostitution or into affairs with someone in the family. It is so sad that people can abuse another person.
One of the neighbors from Australia is planning to return there for the summer and to have her third baby. She had to apply for permission and a special visa to take her housekeeper out of the country. She may be turned down. This lady is now in Turkey with her husband and children, without the housekeeper/nanny. It will be a lot of work for her without help. But, each time a housekeeper is taken out of the country permission must be obtained and there is a nonrefundable fee to be paid.
One afternoon, while walking through a café, I noticed a number of families with their nannies, eating lunch. I noticed that the nannies had no food placed in front of them. I was informed that many families will not feed the nanny when they go out.
When my daughters were visiting they both made comments about how lazy people are in general. People complain about being poor or not having money but they will not work. Here, the people work all day, and then go out at night looking for more work, and they do it with a smile. I am so glad that my girls see this and are hopefully inspired to not complain about what they do not have, but work to gain it.
The weather has become very hot during the day. I have noticed that the outside workers are not seen very often. I have heard that they receive break time in the hottest time of the day. Some of them work at night, early morning or in the late afternoon. I am so glad that these people get a rest from the heat.
The whole city of Dubai started out as a vision. People put money and vision together to build this place. Yet, someone had to do all of the labor. I really admire all of the men and women who have come here, worked physically hard to raise all of these buildings and now work to maintain them. When the girls were here we toured the Burj Kahlifa; a very beautiful and interesting building. All of the history was there for us to see, from start to finish. The men with the idea, the people with the engineering know how, the investment firms were all giving a great deal of glory. It brought a tear to my eye when I read the information on the number of workers who spent years of their life to erect that tower.
I have been working on this for a long time and I just can't seem to get it to flow or organize it. I apologize for the headache it will cause some.
This is the last one for a while. I am flying back to the States on Saturday and will be gone for 8 weeks.
I appreciate every one of you who lets me know that you get these.
Lisa
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