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“Mama Tasha, nataka kuongea na wewe,” (Mama Tasha I want to speak with you), that was my house girl Mwende’s opening cue a few Saturdays ago.
“Wacha nimalizie nakuja tuongee,” I told her sensing trouble.
You know when your house girl comes to your bedroom one Saturday afternoon with some kind of fear, when you are busy tidying your room, you know it is not one of those ‘mafuta ya kupika imeisha’ moments.
It has to be a bombshell.
That is the moment your mind starts racing so fast like a safari rally as you try to figure out what it could be:
“Is she leaving?” “Does she want a salary raise?” or “Is she pregnant?” or “Has she found a husband?”
I stopped what I was doing, fastened my lesso and went to the sitting room. I sat down on one end of the sofa while she sat on another end. The tension was palpable. I had to break the ice.
“Watu wazima nyumbani? OK ni nini?” I asked impatiently.
“Naenda kuolewa,” (I’m going to get married) she went straight to the point.
OK, she caught me off guard; I was expecting her to say she was pregnant.
Long story short, she said Wafula, the lousy, cheeky security man wanted to marry her.
Oh no! All along I had long suspected that the sleazy Wafula was eyeing my house girl.
It is a big blow that my good girl Mwende wants to leave. She was such a brilliant house manager she had taken good care of Tasha and Troy. She had given me peace of mind while I was at work.
In my many years of employing house girls, I have come to realise that when a house girl who has served you well – diligently and faithfully – says she wants to leave it can either be two things - she is pregnant or she has found a man.
Both scenarios are devastating, but I always prefer the former, because she can always leave to go give birth, then she comes back when the baby is big enough.
And if you have a big heart like my friend Steph, you can keep her, allow her to give birth in your house and volunteer to take care of her newborn.
Anyway, but when she is has found a Joseph, it is final. She is gone for good. Nonetheless, I am still mourning the departure of my faithful Mwende.
In as much as she has found herself a hubby, I feel, she deserved better. That security man, I don’t think deserves such a jewel. Wafula looks like such a loser. He comes off as those cheaters who pretend to be single here in Nairobi, yet back in Bungoma, they have two wives and ten kids.
Heartbreaking as Mwende’s going may be, at least she has volunteered to stay on until I find a good girl.
The writer is a married working mother of a toddler boy and a pre-school girl. She shares her experience of juggling between career, family and social life.
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