Holiday Rest - without the HH(House help)

One of the perks of the holiday season is that you get to just seriously lounge, over sleep, over eat...etc For me the seriously lounge never happened this holidays. And being the Kenyan i am i will blame it on the house help not being around; em regardless of the fact that am the one who gladly told her to go home for the holidays as i would be around!.

Maybe it's age but honestly this holiday i did get to appreciate that HH do help alot!. I mean having to wake up early to make breakfast (not optional), clean the house daily, wash dishes which seem to just pop up mysteriously at the sink and did i mention scrubing those sufurias?, wipe off those damn muddy shoes everyone left at the door, make beds, cook cook cook and cook some more, wash clothes, go to the shop( really disliked this task)at some point there was simply no matchbox in the house and yeah it's a bit embarassing to go knocking on your neighbour for some, they would wonder kwani hamna 4 bob? so go to the shop it is!.

My hands have toughened up, my back is stronger but gosh can't wait for the weekend so that i can just seriosly lounge even if it's just for a day...yeah! the HH should be back!.

Living without a Mboch

Now it's come to living withOUT a mboch.. i will just list the major pros and cons.

Pros

1. My cooking fat of 2kg lasts the whole month plus plus (so do alot of consumables e.g. rice..)
2. Even the cooking gas stretches amazingly!
3. We can do whatever we want in the house at whatever time.. :-)
4. You get to arrange your stuff the way you want it
5. You cook your food to your liking :-)
6. No scary thoughts of someone sweeping your whole house while away.

Cons

1. Have to wash son's clothes on Sunday morn. instead of catching some sweet sleep : (

The "Special" ones from Shagz

Had to get a friend of mine to talk to her hairdresser to get a cousin of hers from shagz. Quickly gave fare for the hairdresser(both ways) and for the cousin she was to get for coming to Nairobi. I met the hairdresser at about 7pm in town to pick the new girl (hairdresser had to close her salon for that day), reached home at almost 9pm( i live in the bunduz). Of course no one had prepared supper, so i quickly made some cup of tea and bread for me and the girl. Called the dad to affirm we have fikad and she's fine and so on (you normally have to do this with this type.!) showed her, her room where she was to sleep she goes there stays like 5 minutes tells me she needs to talk to her cousin the hairdresser. i give her my phone they vybe. Then she tells me she will not be staying!!!!!!!!!!!. Annoyances....!!!!. First thing next morning we quickly ship her back to shagz.
A month or so later am told the reason she did not stay..........the cup of tea and bread for supper! IDIOT!!!!!!!!! (Excuse the language).

The Weirdo

Very silent she was in movement and in spoken words. Cooked numerous cups of tea for herself (with milk meant for my son). Always sat alone in the kitchen at meal times. Really weird she was.......and the worst bit she took my ngothaz and started using them!(no am not kidn) i was also shocked....really weird hmm!.

Mkono Mrefu

"Mummy auntie alikuwa amechukua bag yako" these words spoken by my 3 year old son set me on an alert with the current mboch i was having. I did not know how to ask her what in the world she wanted with my handbag which i kept in the bedroom. To cut a long story short she's was the type that left without a word, with my money and with my most precious outfits....grrrh!!!.

At present

Things have gotten a bit better if i can afford to say that. I still haven't got a Mboch to stay one whole year yet but my son will be 3 years in October, and that am definitely one proud mother. Maybe i wasn't destined to live with a Mboch am yet to find out but for now i take each one as they come...good luck to all you young mothers and fathers out there who understand what i am "making noise" about.

The Psycho

Then there's the one who really shocked me and everyone else. I got her from a bureau (God forbid i should ever go there again!). She was in a long black elegant coat and had 2 very nice suitcases (nothing wrong with these except that someone who's looking for house work eeeeh??). She was very very soft spoken and was in spectacles. She looked like the perfect housegirl. Everyone agreed this time i'd gotten the right person. She used to love watching telly and used to love filling crossword puzzles not the simple crossword, she used to fill even the complex one! yes. Apparently she had done a medical lab course but the exam results take like 2 years to come out. Did i mention she was good with my boy? she was.
One good afternoon she tried to kidnap my boy(details of these is for another chapter all together), luckily my hubby was around and smelled a rat. She actually went and Her plan backfired and she ran...she left her money, her clothes, her ID card.
This is the first time i ever felt fear in a long while...the thought that someone could actually take away my son from me. Yeah definitely fear.
3 days after she run she texted me that she had not intended for something bad to happen (definitely guilty), of course i did not have the words to reply to her so i left it at that.
2 months later she came for her clothes, and that was history i will never forget!.

The other Mboch's

After my second mboch i honestly can't remember who came when and in what order. I have had over 10 mboch's since and on average they stayed for two months. Ok, i hear you thinking i must be the problem..well i won't disqualify that totally but honestly am not a bad person, am rational and all that.
Let me just tell you about the other mboch's. There were the very good ones who had to go and elevate their lives elsewhere. One kikuyu who went to become a hairdresser, she was one of my favourites. Another Kikuyu who went back to college her housework was excellent; she used to previously work for a very well-off family. A luhya she was also a favourite, she would always pick whatever you were carrying right from the door and she was so polite to our visitors and everyone she met.
Then there were the bad ones. The ones who leave your baby in the house and go for their own missions. One did this and my boy locked himself inside. It was traumatising and i never trusted this girl again eventually i had to let her go. Then there's the other one who would wait for me to leave then go for laps with my boy and i would wonder why is my boy becoming soo dark (folks these are some of the signs to look for!). This particular one even called cops on us that we had refused to pay and that my hubby tried to rape her. I was annoyed. She was young and foolish.

My Second Mboch

She was from kao land and didn't know how to read the clock. She had no interest in learning how to read it. This was frustrating. How was she to know when to start preparing lunch for baby, wash baby etc ? Her favourite past time watching cars drive by from our 5th floor "apartment" basement. Surely?. She was the first mboch i ever fired.

My First Mboch

I was 8 months pregnant excited and anxious about my very first baby when i got my first own experience with a mboch of my own (i mean not my mothers). She came one fine evening and left on the very next day!. Reason being she got this persistant stomache and headache and nausea which had no intention of getting better. Not even the medicine recommended by my aunt who was a nurse would make her feel any better!. Little did i know this was gonna be the start of my journey with countless Mboches.