Rouanna

My house

            In a recent post, I mentioned the existence of slavery in Oman before the 1970’s. I decided this would be a good week to elaborate on how the slave trade in Oman has impacted Oman today.

            While slavery has been illegal in Oman since Qaboos’s rise to power in 1970, there is no shortage of domestic workers. Most Omani families have one or two servants who clean the house, wash the clothes, cook, and sometimes watch after the children. These servants have a contract to live with the family and work in the house for a period of two years, after which they either continue working at that house, move on to another house, or move back to their home country.

            I have learned quite a bit about how this system works too from conversations with my family. Here is what they have told me over the past month in a nutshell: the Ethiopian servants are the cheapest, because they’re easy to bring in from Ethiopia, they don’t know much English, and they don’t do as great a job at raising children. Sri Lankans and Bangladeshi women are okay and in the medium range, but the best servants are Filipinos, because they obey well, they know English, and are good with children. However, they are more expensive.

            The more I learn, the more I am seeing how this is more a glorified slave trade. Yes, ‘domestic workers’ is a nice, politically correct term, but they are paid very little money (two hundred dollars/month is the average; most get paid less, however) for their hard daily work. On the other hand, my family has told me that they view this as an opportunity to help out people from other cultures. Living in Oman is a better experience than what these people have encountered in their own countries, and therefore, paying them to live in a better place is a gift. Two sides to every coin…

            Enter the life of Rouanna, a woman in her forties from Sri Lanka, who is the servant in my host family’s house. Rouanna’s husband works in a hotel in Sri Lanka, and they has two kids, a girl who is 21 and a son who is 14. She lives in the same house as the rest of my host family, and I am amazed by her continuous cleaning, from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. I usually wake up around 6:30 or 7 only to see her on her hands and knees scrubbing the bathroom and shower floor Soon after my host father walks in and finishes showering, in walks Rouanna again to make sure everything is still neat. I’m thinking, how many times can you clean the same room?!

            Rouanna does not know Arabic and only speaks a little English. So my Omani host mom is the one to bark the orders in broken English, and Rouanna’s job is to try to understand her. Despite both women knowing very little English, Rouanna gets the job done! One example of how much English Rouanna really knows… tonight, I walked in from classes, asked her how her day was, and then asked when we will be eating. Rouanna smiles at me and nods. I ask again, “When is dinner?” Another nod. “When?” I point to my wrist where my watch would normally be. She repeats after me, “When, yes, when.” I come at a different approach. “What time?” She responds, “Yes, time… when.” I see this conversation is going nowhere, so I leave with a “I’ll talk with you later” as she waves and says, “Bye.”

            Rouanna is one hardworker, yet despite all the work she has put in over the past month, I do not hear any words of gratitude. I almost feel awkward using these words, what I had once considered universal manners. Regardless, I always ask her to please do my laundry and oh, thank you, thank you very much for doing it (as if I have to make up for everyone else’s lack of thankfulness).

            As I step into the life of Rouanna and think about the many other servants living and working in Oman and in the other Gulf countries, I think about how blessed I have been growing up in a loving home, having a good upbringing, and being blessed with having the opportunity to attend one of the best institutions in the world. I think I frequently have the tendency to be consumed by my own life and those immediate around me that I forget about others who lead completely different lifestyles. It’s just another reason to be thankful for the freedom I grew up around and an inspiration to fight for that freedom.