Today in my form 2 class we started our new class reader, Rehema the Housegirl. Here in Tanzania, there is a set of class readers, both in English and in Swahili, that students read for the literature part of English and Kiswahili classes. The ones for form one and two are quite short and written about Tanzanian characters.
We will read the book together in class, one or two chapters a day (there are nine chapters). Usually I read the chapter aloud first, and then have students reread it aloud with each person reading one paragraph. On their national exams, they will have to write essay questions discussing one of the books we have read, so they need to know at least one or two of them really, really well.
This book is about an 18-year-old from a small village with a poor family and a father that drinks who goes off to the big city of Dar es Salaam to work as a house girl and send money back to her family. A house girl is a young woman who lives with a family and helps with any type of household work--cooking, laundry, cleaning, childcare, anything of the sort. Some are treated as a member of the family and called dada (sister) and in fact often are young cousins or nieces of the husband or wife who needs somewhere to go between leaving school and being ready to start a family of their own, but some are treated poorly, expected to work long hours for little pay. This is pretty common in this society. Many people ask why I don't have at least a part-time housegirl to do my housework, since they assume a foreigner can afford it. (I could; you can get someone here in Monduli for about five dollars a day, but as I'm only one person and not especially messy, I don't see the need. It's easier to sweep my own floors than to be home at certain times and set up a schedule with someone).
In the story, the mother of the family Rehema works for treats her poorly, often withholding pay and blaming her for any little thing that goes wrong. The father of the family, however, has a thing for young girls, and when she is feeling very alone and unloved in the big city and also dealing with her friend dying of AIDS, he says nice things to her and brings her gifts. Long story short, his wife throws her out of the house when she gets pregnant. But the gardener, a kind old man, sees her crying and gives her some advice--he has a niece who works in a place that helps girls like her. The niece, Mary, helps her to sue the man for child support, which isn't often given without a fight around here. Her mother thinks her life is over when she has a child out of wedlock and so young and uneducated, but she is inspired to fight for a better life and goes back to school, becomes an interior designer who eventually owns her own business, and volunteers with the program to help other young girls like she had been.
It's a lot to unpack for a bunch of (mostly) fourteen-ish year olds, but it reflects the reality of life for many girls, and there's plenty to have opinions about and learn lessons from. This is my first year teaching literature (the last couple of years Oscar and I have split classes with me teaching grammar and him teaching literature, but this year I'm doing everything for form 1 and 2 and he's doing everything for form 3 and 4), and I'm really enjoying it so far.
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