Kick-Ass Housekeeper Part II

In case you ever wondered what happened to my ‘kick-ass’housekeeper, here’s some follow up.

I contacted the ‘Inter-Lebanon Road Running & Athletics Club’ which is a ‘friendly running club for runners of all abilities as well as a highly competitive track & field club’ according to their web site, and asked if they could be of any of assistance for this lady.

Their web site states “We warmly welcome people of all ages, standards, and abilities, from competition standard to beginners just attempting to run for the first time,” and boy, is that the truth. I think I got a reply to my e-mail like in 3 hours. She got a training schedule sent about a few days later, and she’s been running with them for almost two months now, several times a week.  They got her new running shoes, they give her a ride back home after training and they've welcomed her with open arms. And all of these, for no fee whatsoever.

When it rains, she does 10K on the treadmill. When I had to explain how that machine worked, she almost quit running. 

People are often very negative about how Lebanese treat domestic employees, but I am quite impressed on how they've just taken her in and are counting on the fact that this girl is going to run in the next Beirut International Marathon. 

Kick-Ass Housekeeper Part III



First Place for Aregu in overall and age category!!!

I have been busy with many things, but none of it is much worth blogging about. (“Now that has never kept you from blogging in the past,” I hear you say). Usually something significant comes up, or interesting, and there’s your blog entry. But no such thing.

Aregu & Team mates

 

It was all very mundane stuff. I went to a Dutch Quiz Night right here in Hamra, and won first place with my team, organized the hula costumes for my daughter’s Hawaiian Hula Dance group (she’s got a dance teacher from Hawaii) , had a cousin over from France, and am currently hosting the son of another cousin of mine from Holland,  got the sailboats out and  went sailing, went on a dive, was shuttling my housekeeper to training as it seems she is more than just talented, shuttled my daughter around to her various social activities, helped a colleague for a raffle/BBQ at our work and on and on it goes. And in between, I worked.  It seems that now and then you just get overtaken by ‘living’.  A million little things, all insignificant on their own, but when strung together, they make up your life. And so I had nothing to blog about.

 

Getting the sail boats ready

 

And then came by blogging break. Just one hour ago! My housekeeper, as you may remember, runs for pleasure. And so her trainer sent me a message me yesterday to make sure she got to this 10 kilometer cross-country race in Arsoun this morning. I had no idea she was signed up, but he’s signing her up for all kinds of races, and she’s loving it!

 

Getting ready for the dive on the AUB Reef

 

Well, he just sent her picture through on What’sApp; First place in her age category, and what’s even more cool, First Place in the overall category. So she seriously kicks ass! Her next race is on May 26, for the 10K women’s Challenge Race, and her trainer (I should name him, he’s really awesome in taking her under his wings, Roger Bejani. And her team mates, who run with her as well!) says she’s got ‘podium possibility’. Watch out for her, and come and cheer her on!!! 

 

The deeper message is of course that most of you have a housekeeper in the house, yet how well do you know her? Do you know what her interests are? Her talents? Do you know the names of her brothers and sisters? I admit, mea culpa, that I only found out by accident. There must be people out there that are hidden gems in something. And just because economical circumstances forced them to enter the profession of housemaid, doesn’t mean they lose those interests and talents. It is something to think about.

 

I hope mine can go professional. That she can make in one race what she makes with me in a year!!

 

First Jump into the Mediterranean Sea this summer

 

I Told You So

 Marie el Amm (2nd),  Sonia Hanna (1st) and Aregu Sisay Abate (3rd)

 

Didn’t I tell you so, way back in November that this lady kicked ass!? Well, she did!! Today, our housekeeper, Aragu Sisay Abate, won 3rd place on the Women’s 10K Challenge Run here in Beirut.

She’s only been training for some 5 months with the Inter-Lebanon Road Running & Athletics Club, but they obviously take it seriously. Her running buddies, Sonia Hanna and Marie el Amm, won 1st and 2nd place and Aregu Abate passed the finish line at 45:15 min, good for a 3rd place.

 

 

 

She’s worked hard at it, leaving the house most mornings at 6:30 to go to her training. Some days just 5 kilometers, but on other days 20 kilometers. And then when she comes home, there’s still her regular day job in our house. And as any housewife will know; that is a never-ending job. We’ve got teenagers in the house, a cat and a dog, and the laundry keeps piling up, and there’s always dishes in the sink and when you’ve just cleaned the floor, someone walks in with muddy shoes. But she does it. And she does it with a smile. 

Most of these guys were on their second shift, first helping out at the rocket blast in Chiyeh



The women of the Internal Security Forces also ran

And so she made it to the podium of the 10K. Her trainer said she would, but she didn’t quite believe it. She was shy about her outfit. She didn’t want to wear the short top, opted for the long one instead, and thought her shorts looked as if she was walking in a ‘kulotte’ (underwear). But heck, her team mates all said she could do it, and so she did. 

With her trainer of the Inter-Lebanon Road Running & Athletics Club, Roger Bejjani

 

I wonder what it all means to her.  She comes out of a very small farming community on the highlands of Ethopia, in the Wollo district. They grow wheat and millet. Never had been out of her district, let alone her country. She was good in sports at school. Her brother, on the other hand, did not like sports at all; she’s the only runner in the house. When she came to Lebanon, it was her first air plane flight. She did not know how to fasten the seat belt in a car. Had never seen a microwave, and although she never let on, the elevator was something scary. She still won’t take an escalator.

 

 

 

 

And here she is, some 18 months later, and she’s been in the paper twice. She’s running with a group of hard-core athletes that encourage her, and push her to go further. Today, she made it to the podium, she’s been interviewed in front of TV cameras, she was ‘crowned’ by the wife of the president of Lebanon, got a running outfit from Aisti, a ladies watch and prize money, ended up on a stage in front of hundreds of people and photo journalists,  and had many people ask her if they could take a picture with her. I doubt if she ever had this much attention. I am proud I’ve got such a kick-ass housekeeper. I secretly bask in her glory.
Heck, if it weren’t for her, I would never have sat next to the President’s wife. 

 

 

Secretly I hope she’ll stay with us, but I know she won’t. When her contract is up, she intends to go back home and get married. Maybe we can get her to reconsider, and choose running as a career. According to the Beirut International Marathon, that organized the event, this 10 K Challenge run was a ‘special day for women to fight for their rights, share their stories and run for their health.’ I couldn’t agree more. 

 

A happy woman

I’ve Got a Kick-Ass Housekeeper

We had ourselves some rain, and a marathon. No, this picture down below was not taken today, way too sunny. This is from 2003.

Our very first Beirut Marathon, in 2003.
My son's 9, my daughter 10 months old, clearing the finish line at 2:29:23

I’ve run the 10 K ever since the Beirut Marathon came into being, way back in 2003. The first year I ran it with a colleague, a 9 year old son, and a 10 month old baby girl on my back. ‘Running’ may be a bit of an overstatement. I walked. And I’ve walked it ever since (I think I missed it once). These days, the 9 year old son – now 1.85 meter tall – runs on his own, and the baby girl will be 10 this month. She walks the 10K with her little mutt.

Getting to the start line was a bit of an issue

When I went to sign up for the marathon last month, my housekeeper asked if she could join. She’s from Ethiopia, and we communicate in Arabic. Since my Arabic is as poor as hers, it is not always clear if we understand each other. Last year, she was a spectator, and I wasn’t sure if she wanted to come and cheer us on, or whether she wanted to run. But no, I understood well; she wanted to run the marathon. You're sure? I'm sure, she said. So I signed her up with the rest of the family.

Corniche (1K)

Hamra Street (7 K)

I don’t know many Lebanese families that do not have a housekeeper. They come so incredibly cheap! They mainly come from Asia and Africa, with the Filipinos at the high end of the scale, and the Sri Lanki and Nepalese ladies at the bottom. The Filipinos are often very well educated, and speak English, which is a commodity, since many Lebanese use them to raise their children (that’s a bit of a snide remark). I once had a Filipino lady working for me who was a trained marine-biologist, and another one who landed herself a job in the States and now runs her own business in Florida.  

Last year, I hired a lady from Ethiopia. It was her first time out of Ethiopia. 

Down Rue du Rome, 8 K done

And the strange thing is, although we all live in one house, I don’t know much about her. I know she’s from the Wolla district in Ethiopia, that she has a brother, that the family is christian, and that when she went to Lebanon, she thought everyone would be muslim, so she only brought long skirts and long-sleeved shirts. But other than that, I know very little about her. We say hi in the morning, good night in the evening, and that’s about. She works with the old aunt in my house, laughs shyly when we tease the old aunt and she loves our animals. That’s all I can tell you about her.

One more kilometer to go, Weygand Street

But today, I learned something new about her. Something awesome. This lady kicks ass!!  Here we wade, at 8:55 in the morning, trough mud and rain, to the start line of the 10K,  and she sort of hobbles behind my daughter and me (my son had already taken off), and we’re getting wetter and wetter. Then, at 9: 10, when we finally clear the start line, she says, “Can I run?” What do you mean, can you run? You are going to run? Like, not walk, but run? “Yes, run!” Heck, yes, by all means, go run.

And then this girl takes off likes there is no tomorrow! My son sees her pass by at the 5K, tries to keep up with her, but reports that there “was no way on Earth. She’s like a rocket!”

Hana and Aragu  Sisay, with medals

We met again at the finish line, some 2 hours later (1:52, to be exact). She with a yellow medal, surrounded by other Ethiopian runners. She says she doesn’t know what time she made, but she was there before my son (1:29). And I am thinking, I don’t know anything about this lady! Without training she just runs 10 K. She says she does this for fun in Ethiopia. I am in awe of her. She's an athlete!

Hubbie says I’ve got to put her in a training program. He wants her to run with the professional runners next year.  

My housekeeper rocks!!

We made it at 1:51:16. Quite an improvement from 9 years ago. 

September Has Come

 

September has come. Another summer has gone by. A good summer at that, but then, most summers are good.  A non-smelly summer for me, without garbage pile-ups, balmy heat and electricity cuts. I know this has not been the same for everyone. It doesn’t mean the season has changed.

 

 

It is terribly hot on the coast still, but up in the mountains it is cooler, especially in the evenings, and so we roam the hills and mountains around our mountain house (It sounds a lot grander than it is). It‘s always quiet, and that’s a nice change from hectic and noisy Beirut.

Now that I have to avoid the shitty paper trail for a while, until the first rains have dissolved the massive amounts of toilet paper and fecal matter, which should be somewhere in November, I hike a little higher, on the flanks of Mount Kniesseh.

 

 

There’s a change in the weather though, and the birds can feel it. The buzzard migration is in full force.  Thousands and thousands birds of prey were circling around in columns of rising hot air last weekend, soaring from one column into the next, all the way to Africa, their wintering range. Lebanon is one of the main passages of the bi-annual migration of many birds.  More information about it here.
Unfortunately, the hunting season has also started.

 

 

While hiking, we encountered several shepherds and their troops. They’ll be moving their sheep and goats to the valleys end of October. We have an English shepherd dog, and we thought we’d give the shepherd a demonstration on how quickly and efficiently our dog could round up his goats. ‘Baladi’ goats, by the way. And indeed, our dog got the herd together in under a minute. The shepherd smiled politely. The shepherd’s dog however, was not impressed, and needed only 5 seconds to kick our dog’s ass big time. He’s now on anti-biotics to ward of an infection from being partially mangled. So much for that ingenious idea.

 

 

 

We also encountered a free-roaming horse. It’s a young horse, maybe one year old, and belongs to one of the shepherds. It was quite curious, and walked up with us for a while, before he returned to the goats.  It is obviously used to dogs, and was not impressed by our barking and growling species; quite the contrary, it playfully started to chase them. It was not our dog’s best day; First you get your ass kicked by another dog, then you have a yearling chase you. 

 

 

 

Harvest time is on its way. Way above the valley is this lone farmer, not surrounded by other people’s farms, or gardens or houses,  all alone, on the top of the world, growing sweet peas, white beans and broad beans. We bought some beans of him, and then he did not want to accept the money. We thought to give it to his employee, who was gathering them, but he did not want it either.

 

 

In the meantime, everyone is waiting for the season to change to a cooler one.