{UAH} PART 6—Confessions of a former HouseMain in Dubai

My first job in Dubai was not a maid. I was a cleaner! Yes, a house cleaner. My boss, or lady of the house called for a meeting with me and another girl I was to work with. She explains to us that, she will be having clothes each day to wash. Our job was to make sure we wash all clothes, iron them and hang them. Then fold each of the clothes, put them in laundry basket.

"Excuse me," I put my hand up to ask! "Is that all I will be doing" With a smile on her face, she said YES.

Some wave of excitement went through me. But I had no idea what was coming my way.

That night, my friend and I shared a very small bed the size of those hospital stretcher bed they use to take patients. We ate some very little rice on a plate I had seen the woman server her dog from.

I heard her tell her mid aged daughter to stay away from us as we might infect her with diseases. This was my first encounter with humiliation, disgrace and real racism.

That night, on that small bed, I could not sleep. A wave of fear was all over me. Sometimes, the human being can be scared for the right reasons.

In the morning, at 6am sharp. The lady woke us up with slaps and kicks. She shouted at us for over sleeping and as soon as stepped out of the tiny room, she poured ice cold water on us. It was too cold that I slid and almost broke my arm. Why was she being this ruthless, I wondered. A tear dropped. :(

She dragged me by the ears to the bathroom balcony where I found a pile of soo many clothes. I swear, the clothes could fill up pickup. Piled together, the bunch of clothes was taller than me. Spread apart, these clothes could cover a cloth line of 300meters.

That bunch of clothes was for me and the other girl to wash, sort, iron and fold properly.

It took 8hrs alone for the two of us to wash all these clothes.

"Was this going to be daily" I wondered! No lunch, hash commands, kibokos and extremely dirty and smelly clothes, this was to be our daily work for as long as I worked for this woman!

Fuck life!! I told myself— something had to be done

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PART 2

Week two of my being in DUBAI, my lady boss found me bending over washing the huge pile of clothes on the balcony. Those many clothes were a collection of all her friends who apparently contributed to my salary. She got so pissed, started shouting at me before she quickly dragged my head, drowned it into a bowl full of water nearly killing me.

As I gasped for breathe, she kicked me by the butt and pushed closely throwing me off the 7th floor of the apartment. I was scared. She blamed me for trying to seduce her man by wearing a skimpy skirt while washing the 100kgs+ of clothes. 

I almost fought back! I almost grabbed her by the dress! I felt like throwing this pencil thin lady boss off the balcony and kill her instantly.

But I was scared! One, scared of murder but also scared that if thrown in Dubai prison, I would never see light of day. I refrained from any violence! I stayed calm, grabbed a long dress, put it and continued washing. My hands were bleeding. In just 2 weeks, I had so far washed enough that could cloth 2 secondary schools. 



The more I washed, the more I got weak. The weaker I got, the less reproductive I became and this annoyed this woman the more. To her, I was a machine capable of performing no matter the conditions. Every day, I wondered why I can't just kill this fool and rot in prison. But I failed!

I could not make any call nor use my phone because my phone was roaming. The only way out would be to use WiFi, but that devil of a woman never let go of her WiFi password. 

I started scheming for ways to access internet, use my phone to communicate with the agent that brought me to Dubai and notify them to find me another job.

This seemed futile. 

One Thursday, she found me peeping in her phone and hell broke loose. She cried that I was a thief, called me 'silly stinking black bitch'. Then she led me to another small tiny black room where she locked me. This was her punishment room. In this room, she could murder you, starve you or just leave you to suffocate there till you drop dead.

In under 1hr, I was already sweating, failed breathe and tears dried. In those tiny seconds of my dying moments, there came a knock on her apartment door……

———————— PART THREE (based on a true story)

The knock on my lady boss apartment saved my day. I would never have lived to tell this story. The knock was her friend. Her friend lived near by. She had just had a baby in previous days and now, she wanted to go attend a party but needed someone to live the baby with. She asked if she could leave her baby at this lady boss' apartment.

This woman, well knowing her stupid selfish and egocentric attitude, she refused. But rather, she offered an alternative option. She offered to have one of her slaves to go over at her house and do the task.

That slave would be me. Since I had developed negative attitude towards arabic women, I did not know whether to be happy or sad. I had cried enough and by now, all I wanted was either death or prison. In death I would find rest and in prison I would find solace with fellow inmates.
Trembling, skin pale and eyes red, I walked out of her apartment so weakly that I almost collapsed. I had not eaten a good meal in 2 weeks, and was not getting access to drinking water.
"Do you love babies?" This new woman asked. "Yes" I replied.
"Well, escort me now" I have work for you and make sure you do it well" Even though I was glad to be out of that dungeon of a prison hole, I felt my heart pump.
I could these women speak in arabic, and I could feel all was not well. "Your lady boss says you are too lazy" Said this new Arab woman.

"Treat my baby well or I will kill you myself with a pistol bullet in your stupid head" she said.

I took this threat serious and very serious. I had already faced enough trouble by failing to wash a truckload of clothes and I never wanted any more trouble. Surely tending to a baby would be so easy, I thought. But I was hungry and dying. My toes were bleeding and my body very weak. How could I perform.
And no sooner had I reached this new woman's house than I collapsed and fell to the ground.

In that moment, something happened!!

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PART 4 (based on a true story)

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I was shocked to wake up in stable. A Stable is a home for donkeys. These foolish arabic women, instead of taking me to a hospital, had felt it wise that I get treatment from same place where their donkeys sleep. I was confused when I woke up and saw 3 donkeys just adjuscent to me.

Was I dreaming? Out of fear, I made an alarm only to see another African girl from Ghan standing on top of me holding a dish with a water and a wet rag. 

"They dragged you here all unconscious. I thought you were dead. They told me to give you water and some medicine" she narrated. 

"Your boss also told me to notify them if you do not wake up in 4hrs.

You are lucky you woke up"

Then she dropped the bullet by saying. "Had you not, I think they would have taken you to the mortuary. They usually do that. Recently, they took an alive girl to the mortuary, and said she is dead. They paid some little money and that was the end. I think she died in that mortuary"

My heart was beating like a drum.

The thought of me waking up from unconsciousness and find myself surrounded by dead bodies in a mortuary even scared me more. Surely I was not in Dubai. This must have been a different place, I told myself.

Minutes later, the new lady boss came to me excited that I was awake. She was all jolly, talked nicely and called me by my sweet name Atim. She claimed that name was simple and precise. She even said she liked me! 

"How do you now feel" She said in her broken English mixed with kinda arabic. I replied am fine. She asked me to follow her to which we went drove in her. To my surprise, we drove for almost a kilometre before we could reach her home. 



This shocked me more. How the hell did these women drag my lifeless body through this long distance? What were they planning. 

When we arrived at her home, she ordered me out of the car, straight into her house and that's when hell broke loose. 

A second ago she was a kind-hearted, jovial, cheerful fellow with a difficult life trying to share happiness with me.

A second later - I was staring into the face of a vicious and angry woman - her eyes turned red - her voice changed, the smiles gone. I had been brought back to reality from a utopian world!

The devil had awoken! Death was coming….

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PART 5—Confessions of a former HouseMain in Dubai

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The next day, being the housemaid in this lonely Dubai home, I always had to wake up early and do every task before my boss lady could wake. To my surprise, the man who tried to rape me was already standing at the balcony.

In shock, I looked at this idiot of man and just when I was about to scream at him, I heard my boss lady call him.

"Sweetheart you woke up early today" Oh My Lord. This man was my boss' husband. This beast of a rapist, the fool whose balls I had kicked so hard, was the same man who that same night had shared a bed with my boss lady.

What a world! Imagine the shock!

I knew my life was gone. I wanted the world to swallow me. And just as I stood there frozen, he walked to me, and whispered. "Stay quite, be nice and our secret won't be revealed" He said.
"Okay sir" were the only words I could speak out.

Then suddenly, lady boss while shouting from another room announced she was heading out to go meet an agent that usually brings more girls. That the girls were coming from Uganda. As she prepared herself, I got so worried on how I would remain with this man.

How would I face him! Should I ask lady boss and accompany her? But I had alot of work to do.

Nosooner had the lady boss walked out than this man walked upto me, this time more careful not to be kicked in the balls again. He sweet talked me, held me nicely and sounded friendly.
"Me and my friends have always wanted to enjoy African girls" he said. His nonsense sounded ridiculous. GIRLS?? Plural to mean he wants to use and dump African girls, me inclusive.

"I will pay you for your kindness and it will be sweet for you"

He went on.
"Lets hurry before madam comes back and dare not tell her because she won't believe you. And I will kill you myself" He said.

I took his threats serious. I had heard of girls being used, and after beaten into coma and their bodies thrown into garbage heaps. I wonder how and where my body would be dumped. As his arms moved through my waist, gently rolling up my skirt and carefully tearing my knicker apart, I could not help but get teary. A drop of tears dropped and suddenly boss lady entered only to find me standing with her man!


By

Jeanette Atim Niwabine

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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