Alice's Triumphant Return

So after a horrible night (I get all kids to bed by 8:30, then Baby is up howling at 10:30, I get in bed at midnight, then Baby is up howling again from 1:00-2:00 am, then other kids up for the day at 6:00, throw in some yelling at Daddy in the middle of the night for good measure, how DARE he attempt to sleep!), I was gearing up to start my day in a really evil mood (yes, I actually plan my bad moods in advance. is that weird?).

And yet, when I opened my bedroom door, my face already arranged in a forehead-creasing scowl, I heard the most glorious sound: a running vacuum! And I could smell the Pledge wafting up the stairs and good heavens, my spirit soared! I literally danced down the (million) stairs and ran past the children and straight into the open arms of my beloved Alice (well, not exactly; truth be told, she always recoils slightly when I try to hug her, but I try not to take it personally). Hallelujah, she had returned!!

Now I would tell you what's going on with her visa situation and explain why she had more or less disappeared for two days and three nights, but for the fact that, once again, I couldn't quite understand what she was saying when I asked her about it (why was her English so much better in her job interview? had she been reciting from a script??). Who cares! I nodded and made my sympathetic face and mostly tuned her out because all I could hear were the choruses of angels singing in my ears! O happy day, I do not need to renew the housemaid search, the baby has got her friend back, and I no longer need to tidy a 3-story house all by myself! (who are we kidding, in the 2 days she was gone, instead of actually cleaning, I just tried not to touch anything).

And the best part is, not only was Alice back on the scene, but what also had miraculously appeared were all the delightful trappings of Alice: sitting in the hallway next to her room was a large suitcase and several plastic bags stuffed with sneakers and t-shirts and even a DVD player. It can only mean one thing: she is here to stay!! Hooray for the good guys, another happy ending to another little crisis.

*Editorial note: In a moment of seriousness, it is worth mentioning that part of the problem Alice is having with her visa is that her previous family had threatened to turn her passport over to the authorities when they were unable to reach her by cell phone over the course of several days to discuss the transfer of Alice's visa from their family to ours. Which kind of freaks me out: Why were the husband and wife in physical possession of Alice's passport in the first place? Are *we* expected to confiscate her passport now? What message does that send her: That she is a captive in our home? That we own her now, and it is up to us to dictate where she can go and when? I honestly can't imagine holding her passport for any reason other than if *she* asked us to store it somewhere for safekeeping. It makes me sad to think that these Filipino and Sri Lankan housemaids are often treated like slaves here-- there is no other way to think of it-- especially when the newspaper occasionally features stories of housemaids being horribly abused and/or neglected by their host families. The job of housemaid must be such an emotionally draining existence in even the best of circumstances: these women leave their husbands and young children behind in order to wait on rich white people hand and foot for meager salaries that are immediately sent away; and, in the meantime, they are expected to love someone else's children like their own, which must only intensify how much they miss their actual little ones. Frequently when I see Alice cuddling Baby my heart breaks a little for her, knowing that she, too, has a baby somewhere out there who is probably missing his momma. Surely no one who knows me would be surprised if I arrived on the scene in the U.A.E. and attempted a liberation of all the housemaids (and gays, while I'm at it!!), but the question is how...

In the meantime, I will treat Alice with the utmost respect and teach my children to thank her daily, and begin planning now for the sizable bonus that I plan to eventually sneak her, whether Daddy knows it yet or not. ;)