Last week Sunday, I went to Sunninghill, by the spar near Megawatt park, with the intent of doing my laundry. There is a laundromat I use that is next to spar. It was good to me, but everytime, whilst waiting for my clothes to wash, I would feel like I am wasting time, I'd read the paper get depressed (the news paper gets me depressed, so I don't buy it anymore).
Alas, when I was there on Sunday, did I say I was there, well, I got there, only to find out that, they are renovating, they are actually building something else next to the 'lil shopping complex', which means my laundromat was not open, it was not there rather. I was confused, I did not know where else to go, I know of one in Parkhurst, but that was way too far, and I was getting tired. That morning, I woke up, cleaned my room (which I do every 2-4 months), I also did the dishes. I was tired.
So, I did not know what else I was going to do, so I drove back home. I was disappointed, coz finaly I got the nerve, the energy, the time to get my clothes washed, which I only do like every 2-4 months, but I couldn't.
K tells me I need to hire a 'maid/domestic worker', well I can't do it. My grand-mother was a maid way back in the days of ol'Apartheid. I ain't going to do it. I am not going to pay an elder to clean up after me, I just can't do it. She (K) argues that I must look at it, as in, '... employment, helping somebody make a living.' She is probably right, but I am still not going to do it. I will wash my own clothes, either by a machine or by my own hands.
That is what I did today. I washed my dirty jeans with my own bare hands in the bathtub, okay, there was brush I used to help out. I have never sweated like that this year. Washing clothes is tough.
I am tired. I slept at 3 yesterday (did not eat the whole day), woke up at 6, went to give a 2 hour lecture, bought i-plate, drove home, to find the power out, washed the clothes, power came back. Tried to do some work, I've been 20% productive, now I am munching a peanut-butter sammage, drinking coffee, waiting for my clothes to dry, and guess what.
It's about to rain.
Yeses maan.
Hai, the only thing I wash ka matsogo ke pentie.
O le hippie le jwang. Phela mahippie ha batsebe go tlhatswa ka matsogo.
Joe, your K is right. You need to get help. Washing ka ma tsogo is not sustainable. Mind you di maids tsa today don\'t wash ka matsogo either.
So you would need to hook them up with a washing machine.
I had organise my helper to help out at a friends house. She quit a re washene ya gage itoo much. Worse because o tlhatswa ka matsogo and ha patele sharp.
So, if you going to hook up somebody to wash ka ma tsogo, you better pay them real sharp.
Feb 2007
I have a complex about paying some-one to clean up after me.
I don\'t think it\'s right, I think we are just benefiting from the lack of economic and social development in our country, by getting other people\'s mothers to clean up after us. You don\'t see well educated people being maids do we?
But alas, it is only me who feels this way, it is my battle.
nkoane
Feb 2007
Would it be better if your maid was a young girl - trying to put herself through school?
Would that be better.
You\'d rather rob somebody of a job because you believe if you gave them one you\'d be benefitting from the lack of economic and social development.
Let me ask you this, if you could everythign for yourself would you do it?
The petrol pump...do you fill up yourself.
Restuarants - do you cook for yourself rather than have somebody prepare food for you.
Being a helper IS a skill. If you don\'t think of it as such it is because you belittle it.
You can empower your helper. Take them for training - cooking school. Enrol them in some post matric studies.
Think big if you really believe in what you are saying.
You can turn every single situation into a positive one by thinking more laterally.
But if you just don\'t want a maid, well then you just don\'t want a maid.
Feb 2007
Your gran was a maid.
My gran was a maid.
My mom was not a maid.
My mom was a teacher. That\'s a notch up wouldn\'t you say.
I\'m not a teacher. I\'m a notch up from that.
There\'s more to life than now.
You giving somebody who may be sitting at home, contemplating sellign her body for money or selling drugs, or whatever - a job, may not improve that particular person\'s life as such, but it will help that person work towards improving their children\'s lives.
And at some point...some time in the future...and I see it.
The world will be a better place for all who live in it.
No?
Still no maid huh?
Feb 2007
I think its a personal choice to get a maid, but as life progresses, the realisation that you need to get one will hit, like it or not. then the faculties will have to exercise. life is too short.
Feb 2007
I am not buying your reason's, y'all get maids, I won't and I will stick to my reasoning.
This general ideology of commonality is actually getting to annoy me, why the hell is that when one does not conform to norms, that others have reasoned to be okay, more people spend time trying to convince the deserter to join them. I hate that, actually fuck that.
Look, I don't want a maid, because I have clearly put it, I don't want anybody to clean up after me, period. To take the ideology of a maid into restaurants, is trying to convince (more so coerce) me into sequence of logical steps are not founded on good base (i.e a maid).
Yes, I do have a problem with being served at restaurants by people older than I am, but that is something I can ignore. To be clear, I have a problem with the idea of servitude, who the fuck am I to go to an establishment and demand to be served? Coz I got money? Fuck that, we/I do it, because it is an 'accepted' norm, but I would argue it still is a 'master and slave' relationship.
A maid on the other hand, I cannot ignore the slavery my grand-mother was put through. So I won't for that reason alone, I don't give a fuck of how much time, I don't have to clean my own crib.
Another thing, I have realised, from getting old, is that contrary to your argument Matome, you do have time to do a whole lot of shit, it's a matter of prioritising that time. The time spent clubbing, drinking, chilling, posting stories on blogs, chatting on email, taking coffee breaks can be used to clean your crib.
Look, if these things do not trouble you, that's okay, me, they do, until they don't I am not getting a maid. I have no right (in my own mind) to demand of any person to be responsible for my own mess, I'll handle it.
nkoane
Feb 2007
\"Life is the longest thing you will ever go through.\" - Bill (some British comedian).
I agree with that.
nkoane
Feb 2007