June 11, 2004

Dar Es Salaam

Brian's cousin and her husband and her mother and her daughter are in Tanzania - we've been getting the emails, sort of a travelogue.

Before I started this doctoral program in geography I couldn't have told you where Tanzania was. Now I know two women from there. One is researching kin networks in domestic help in Dar Es Salaam. She was a little embarrassed to say that she had two "girls" as domestic help while she was doing pre-field work there last summer. For anyone who fantasizes about THE life with domestic servants doing all the work, just dip into any part of the four-volume set of Virginia Woolf's diaries: More trouble than help.

Unlike all the other women in my family, I refuse to have domestic assistance of any sort. I would not like someone cleaning my house (it's a control thing) and also there's the dynamics of power and I don't like that either.

My house is as clean as it is depending on time and inclination, and although I can't escape defining myself in part on the state of my housekeeping (some gender notions die a slow and painful death) I am always trying to ignore those sexist notions.

It is approaching winter in Tanzania. Why did they all go there now, I wonder?

Posted by otto0114 at June 11, 2004 10:42 PM
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Posted by: biagra at August 6, 2007 07:38 PM

Hi, just to add some thoughts to your comments...

Sometimes, it is a good idea to get domestic help but then it is an individual preference.

From where I come from - Singapore, getting a domestic helper or Singapore maid is almost a necessity due to the fast pace of life here.

It is great to live overseas where life is slower paced and we can breathe the air. I would enjoy that too :-)

I respect you for wanting to do the domestic chores on your own. I am a lazy pig ;-)

Cheers!

Posted by: Singapore Maid at August 24, 2007 05:52 AM
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