Kenyan women often choose to work as housekeepers abroad instead of at home. This is because they are said to make more money working abroad than they do at home. Saudi Arabia is one of the best-known places where maids are paid.
Sarah Wanjiru was born in Nakuru County to a family of ten. She is now a mother of three. Kenya didn't have enough jobs, so she moved to Saudi Arabia to try to find work.
Since Sarah is the oldest and her mother died in 2008, she took care of her other siblings. Sarah's parents were not able to send her to high school after grade eight, so she went to work as a housekeeper in Nairobi. Sarah said that her boss would sometimes refuse to give her food or pay her salary.
Sarah decided to get married when she was young because money was tight. Her rich husband took good care of her, so her marriage was good. Her husband took care of her because she was a young mother. When Sarah gave birth to her second child, her husband changed.
For one, he got angry and treated her badly. Sarah also said that he would sometimes leave home for three days and then come back without any money. Sarah also said that her husband sometimes cheated on her, and when she confronted him about it, he got angry.
Sarah's problems caused her to split up with her husband, and with the help of her sister, she rented a house on her own. Sarah got a job as a bartender later on. Even though she didn't get paid much, she was thankful to God for having peace of mind. Sarah was going about her day when she met a man who told her she could make a lot of money if she went to Saudi Arabia.
Sarah liked the idea, and the man was able to help her find a good agent. After her paperwork was taken care of, Sarah went to Saudi Arabia. Sarah said she worked for a large family whose house had a lot of rooms. She had to clean all the rooms and wash and iron the clothes as part of her job. She always did her work well because she was a girl who worked hard.
Sarah said that there was plenty of food, so she never went hungry, and that she could also use WIFI. She even had her room. Sarah said she was fat before she moved to Saudi Arabia, but after working in that house, she gained weight and her skin tone changed.
Sarah's boss liked the way she did her job. Sarah says that her Indonesian coworker wasn't happy with how her boss treated her. The woman didn't like her, and sometimes she'd lie to her boss. Sarah said that if anything went wrong, the Indonesian woman could quickly explain it to her boss in Arabic. Since Sarah didn't know Arabic, she just kept quiet. Sarah did most of the work most of the time.
Her boss always yelled and screamed at her, which made Sarah feel sad most of the time. Sarah decided to leave after working for a year. She got the idea from a friend who lived alone in Riyadh. Her friend showed her how to get to her friend's place on Google Maps, and Sarah took a taxi to get there. Sarah got a job through a friend who got her work in different people's homes every month. Sarah says, "My pay was good compared to where I worked before."
Sarah told the story of how she met a guy friend online who liked her, so they became friends. Sarah was lonely and didn't have any male friends, so she agreed to go out with him. During Sarah's free time, he went to her house. Most of all, he always gave Sarah gifts that she didn't expect, which made her love him. Sarah says that the man told her he had split up with his wife and that he was from Egypt.
After a few months, Sarah went to where he lived and they got close. Sarah got pregnant, which was a bad thing, and when she told her boyfriend about it, he told her he was tired of being with her. Sarah called him a few times, but he turned off the phone in the end. Sarah tried to get to him, but she couldn't. Sarah talked to one of his cousins on Facebook and found out that the man was married and had three kids. He was also from Saudi Arabia, not Egypt as he had said.
Sarah hid the fact that she was pregnant at work so she could wear clothes that didn't fit. When Sarah was eight months pregnant, she decided to go back to Kenya to give birth. After a week, she was sent back to Kenya, which was a good thing. She had a baby girl later, and now she is taking care of her.
Sarah advises women who work in the Gulf Countries to be very careful about online dating. Sarah said that most people who date online never tell the truth about their relationship status.