'Garden boys' and 'House girls'

If you have at one stage or another lived in Africa then you are most likely to have come across either a 'garden boy' and a 'house girl' or both. These are not the most endearing of terms and are not age determined either, but more a description of function or role. In a recent phone conversation, my cousin relayed her dilemma to me : She had gone without her 'house girl' for a whole week. This left her struggling to cope as she had to juggle the mundane day-to-day tasks. Her "situation" got me thinking.

Why are these grown men and women still referred to as 'girls' and 'boys'? It is not uncommon in Africa to find either of these terms being used in reference to men and women well into their sixties. While this may not be a picture or story unique to parts of Africa, for the sake of those who have no comprehension of what I'm going on about, I'll briefly outline the role descriptions that you are more than likely to find being associated with the either of the above terms.

And so in short, a house girl is ,'a maid or housekeeper' and a garden boy is essentially 'a gardener' whose broad list of responsibility spans from tending the garden to a host of other bits and bobs that veer far from the gardening and landscaping domain and encroach into territories that include but are not limited to: washing the car, running errands, repairing kids bicycles and a whole host of other handy-man-type responsibilities.

Maybe the terms are a depiction of the domain or territory in which they each bring their primary expertise.

In the case of the house girl, her domain is the house (inside that is) or rather the home as more often than not she is also be expected to help rear the children, mind and love the pets plus all and sundry that makes a house a home.

Levels of responsibility and privilege each brings to their role will vary widely across homes. Generally, the rule of thumb in surbubia Africa (at least in the part of Africa I was raised), is that the suburban home should be maintained at mile-high standards of utmost cleanliness and guess who the undisputed winner of that wonderful responsibility is? Great work! Yes - the maid.

The general notion is that the work commanded by these jobs cannot be hard work since it requires no tertiary training of any sort. After all, its just about keeping a house neat and tidy , organizing meals, tending to the kids, doing the laundry and making sure everything is where it should be - clothes clean, pressed and neatly packed away into clean and fresh smelling wardrobes; floors are swept,scrubbed ,mopped and polished to a shine; carpets are shampooed every so often but cleaned (using a hand brush in most cases) daily. Windows are cleaned periodically and if meal planning and cooking are part of the package then she has to also do this.

'Wow!',you gasp, 'they must be raking in the money!'. Well, not really. You see, its worthwhile noting that both of the jobs under discussion here are by no means esteemed - far from it! These jobs are considered menial, for the uneducated and those with few other options such as the 'poor' who are the uncontested "majority shareholders" of the lowest economic stratum of society.

For those employers' of house girls and garden boys as well as the casual observers who at some point venture outside of Africa they do receive an 'awakening' of sorts as they find out that the services rendered to them by their former employees do not come cheap. There are no house girls and no garden boys in the western world. Instead there are 'Landscape Artists', 'housekeepers' and 'butlers' who are very adequately remunerated for the hours that they put in.
Oprah would call it a kind of 'Aha' moment. Only then do people realise that it certainly does take skill, organisational management and dedication to run a home smoothly. It takes patience and dedication to keep the house in a somewhat 'okay' condition and still have time for personal grooming and just plain heartfelt laughter.

Juggling  work, school, chores, family and a healthy social life without an extra pair of hands takes more than just dedication and self discipline. Trying to juggle too many balls without the skill will only result in some of them falling. It's only through God's grace, grace and more grace that one can get the strength and ability to juggle all these responsibilities.

So, if you do have wonderful helping hands around your home, do take time to thank them ,to thank God and if you are able, do surprise them with an unexpected bonus. Here's to the men and women who lend their hands and time to making the lives of thousands of people comfortable even if it is for very little financial reward and little or next-to-no self development in some cases. It takes heart, skill and love to do what they do.

Till next time...