Happy Enkutatash

It’s not just any ‘ole New Year in Ethiopia: it’s the millennium! We celebrated by eating Ethiopian food for dinner (courtesy of our fabulous housekeeper/nanny), and tomorrow the boys will wear their traditional outfits to school (with enthusiasm–there is no forcing involved). Plus our housekeeper has the day off tomorrow, which isn’t so much a celebration for us, but nice for her. We know she plans to spend at least part of the day at church, an interesting contrast to a typical New Year’s Day in the US.

The BBC has some great articles about the Enkutatash celebration. I’ve also been following the Ferenge Addis Blog, written by a former North Carolinian who now lives in Addis. It’s a great way to see a bit more of Addis as translated by a fellow American.

Happy Enkutatash to you and yours.

The amazing housekeeper

Desta, the new housekeeper, started on Monday, and she’s incredible. She cooks, she cleans, she does laundry, she irons, she washes dishes… and she does all this without prompting. She’s a professional person who knows how to do all these things! Plus she’s a lovely person to have in the house, evident especially in her interactions with the boys.

She surprised us the first night by asking what she should make for dinner. Mr. Four had been planning on burritos, so she chopped up the veggies and he did the rest. But after dinner we talked to her about making some Ethiopian food for us, and indeed she did, last night. I couldn’t enjoy it completely as I was sick, but her misr wat was delicious. Mr. Four commented that he had forgotten just how good Ethiopian food is–we don’t eat it because of the kids, but because we love it!

And Bug liked it too.

Happiest of all, though, was Giggle. At first he asked for a spoon (Desta is still tracking down injera ingredients, so we subsituted brown bread), til Desta chided him into eating with his hands. And then while he sopped up the misr with the bread, he became so happy and animated. Our local Ethiopian restaurant back in the States closed just before Giggle got there, so the only Ethiopian food he’d eaten in two months were my attempts at kik alitcha and some injera we had frozen. Last night it was like watching him blossom.

In fact, Giggle was so happy, he was willing to use some of his Amharic. He’s been resistant to it the few times he’s heard it since we left Ethiopia. But a few bites of misr had him saying, when prompted, “Amasegenalo!” (thank you) to Desta.

Next week, once we have injera, Desta is going to make more Ethiopian food more regularly for us. And soon we’ll invite folks over for dinner and serve them good Ethiopian food, rather than our feeble attempts at it, to try to bribe them into being friends with us.

And having a housekeeper is just incredible. My work day ends early by US standards, so I’m often home around 4 or so. And then I can just hang out with the boys. And Mr. Four can hang out with us. And the house is clean and none of us are worried about chores. It’s lovely.

And I know there are some people (hi Mom!) who be glad to know my clothes, including the linen, are getting ironed so I’m not embarassing myself or my family on the streets of Cairo.

It is weird for us to have a household employee. But she is so professional that it makes it easier for us. I think we’re good employers–we’re paying her what seems to be a good wage, and her working hours are reasonable, and she is welcome to eat food here or take it home if she wants (indeed, she took home some of Mr. Four’s lasagne tonight).

How else can we be good employers? I’d love to know. In the meantime, we do say thank you, because we mean it.

Desta Poppins

So our first housekeeper, who was set to start tomorrow, found a full-time position and won’t be working for us. We didn’t even realize she wanted full-time work; indeed, we thought working part-time for us would free her up for another job so she could make more. Ah well.

The good thing is that her friend and roommate, also from Ethiopia, was looking for a new position. So Hana (housekeeper number one) brought Desta (housekeeper number two) over. We liked her and could see right away that she’s good with kids, and we had a good recommendation for her.

So no messing around this time. We aren’t ready for full-time, but we offered her about six hours of work a day (full time here is 8am to 6pm, so she said). She’ll be here from noon to 6pm five days a week. We may hire her for more hours down the road, particularly if Mr. Four finds a job he likes. She’s also available (for extra pay) for evening babysitting on weekends, which is perfect. I don’t want to leave the kids with random strangers, but I do want to go out sometimes.

We asked Desta if she could cook, and she said, “Only Ethiopian food, but you can show me how to make other things.” Only Ethiopian food sounds perfect to us! And the hours sound great, too. She starts on Monday.

The process of hiring a housekeeper involves, first, a decision: whether to hire an Egyptian. Egyptian housekeepers have terrible reputations amongst expats. Indeed, even an Egyptian colleague told me that most are dishonest. They are also reputed to have a poor work ethic, napping away on the job and often not showing up. Egyptian housekeepers are also the cheapest.

The preferred housekeepers are Filipino, Sudanese, and Ethiopian (and perhaps some other nationalities I’ve forgotten). They are immigrants who prefer to be paid in dollars and are said to be harder, better workers who also receive higher pay.

At least one expat I know said she was very satisfied with her Egyptian housekeeper. So who knows. Our interest in an Ethiopian housekeeper is because of our kids, and we’re glad to pay a bit more for someone who can cook Ethiopian food and speak Amharic and who obviously likes kids.

Apparently many housekeepers prefer working for expats. As Egyptian housekeepers have a bad reputation, so too do Egyptian employers. Desta (so I was told by another expat who knows her) was working for an Egyptian family who wanted her there ’round the clock, but didn’t give her a room. So Desta slept on the floor in her employer’s room. And only had one day off each week.

So it seems like this new situation could work out for all us. (An Egyptian would now say Insha Allah, meaning, if Allah wills it.)