The Ugly Side; Maid in Lebanon

The new maid has arrived! It cost me an arm and a leg, but that was my own fault; I did not have time to ‘order’ one from the Philippines, I needed her instantly.

And instantly, you can get, but the price goes up. Where do this ‘instant’ maids come from, you may wonder? Well, those are the ‘rejects’, i.e. maids that were employed in houses, but were then rejected by the ‘Madam’, as the owner of a maid is called here, for whatever reasons. I don’t mind a ‘reject’, because the ‘reject’ label tells you about the employer, rather than the employee.
This country has many positives, but if you want to see some of its uglier sides, go ask the maids. The way these ladies get treated is incredibly demeaning. There's even a documentary that highlights this. More on their situation here. It's modern-day slavery.

The new lady that I have now, came to Lebanon three months ago. She’s in her early thirties, has three children, and came here on a three year contract. The fact that she is willing to leave her children for three years (!) should tell you that this lady is serious about working.
So she got to work for a couple that owns a hotel (won’t name any names) in town. They ate in the hotel, but forgot to feed the maid. So she went hungry. She was not allowed out of the house, did not have days off, so worked 7 days a week, and in the end was called a ‘whore’, by the ‘madam’. She was finally dumped back in the office, and rejected. This is good for me, because now she got to work for me, and she is fine.

Now how anyone would dare call a grown-up woman, a mother of three, who comes all the way from the Philippines to work here, a whore, is totally beyond my comprehension. I would have gone after the bitch with a knife. The Pilipino before her was deported after being accused of stealing $700; charges that I doubt. Very often, when the contract of a maid is about to end, they deport the maid, so they do not have to pay her final salary. 10 floors down is a Phillipino who has not been paid for 3 months, and three buildings down the street there is an employer who owes his Phillipino $3000 in salary.
The situation for maids in this country is sad. Just google ‘maid in Lebanon’, and you won’t believe what you read. They get treated like slaves, beaten, raped, mistreated, abused, thrown of balconies, verbally insulted and otherwise treated incorrectly.

The Phillipinoes have a sweet revenge though; they talk. The maids know what goes on in each household. They do the laundry, so they know who’s been sleeping with whom. They overhear the conversations, so they know when there are money problems. They hear the fights at night, because they sleep in the house. They pay attention to the telephone conversations of ‘Madam’, and catch up on all the local gossip. They know when the bank calls for their money. They clean up, and know what is in every drawer and closet of the house, so whatever sex toys ‘Mister’ may be hiding, or medications ‘Madam’ is taking for fungus infections, they know it.

And this is how I know what goes on in this neighborhood. Because the maids come over in the afternoon (well, the ones that are allowed out of the house, that is), and have tea with my maid, and then the stories flow. They tell me, because I am considered a ‘foreigner’, i.e. non-Lebanese. I know rather painful stuff of about 75% of the households in my building. I have heard stories about people in the neighborhood that would want to make them crawl under a stone of shame.

On the surface, I live in a very nice and decent neighborhood. Upper middle class, mixed religions, all very respectable people with good jobs, and successful children.
But under all that, are other stories. I know who cannot pay the school fees anymore. I know who’s got a mistress, and I know who’s screwing (or trying to) around on her husband. I know who’s $20,000 in debts, and is about to be evicted. I know of the fights between two sisters in-law, and the problem with the inheritance (or rather, the absence of one). I know why one of their daughters married this guy (she was ‘damaged goods’ as they call a non-virgin in Lebanon), and why the son had to ‘go' to the US (Lebanese justice department is on his heels for massive fraud), and that he is currently ‘down and out’ in Miami. I take a perverse pleasure, every time I see her, to ask; “So how’s your son doing in Miami?” “Oh, he’s doing so well. They adore him there. He’s never coming back, he says,” is the reply. Yeah, I bet. He’d be arrested at the border, and end up in jail. Besides, he can't afford the plane ticket from what I hear.

And that is their sweet revenge. So for anyone out there in Beirut with a maid that they mistreat; be careful, somewhere in your neighborhoods there is someone who knows every ugly detail in your household.