I sat down today to post some more pool photos from our fabulous vacation, but as I was scrolling through from the beginning, I saw these.
Stylin’ as always, excited for the ride to the airport.
Our cab driver had an American flag air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror and spent the drive talking to Josh (in Arabic) about how he liked George Bush and Bush’s mission to get rid of terrorists. (I was more than a little proud of the fact that I could decipher some of what he was saying, though “George Boosh!” was hard to miss.)
Breakfast at the airport. Not for me — I generally don’t eat when I fly. A decaf cappuccino and half of a yellow pill are enough for me. (I was actually relaxed about going on this trip, but when something works, I don’t like to deviate from the routine.)
Two different cultures, two different languages, one love of electronics.
(It was the little boy’s tablet, but he kept wanting Caleb to play with him.)
Then I got to these pictures. And I remembered.
While waiting to board our plane there were over a hundred women like these all around us. From our experience in the region, I know that these women are on their way to various countries to work as housemaids, nannies, and other household help. They are all leaving home to try to provide for the families they’ve left behind. Some have even paid enormous sums of money to “agents” to get visas to work in these countries. Some of these women will be kept under lock and key, some will end up in an indentured servant type of situation where they never earn enough to repay the costs of their travel/visa and living expenses, and the ones in “good” situations will work only 6 1/2 days per week (but those work days will be from the time they wake up until the time they go to sleep).
I watched a man walking around checking tickets and directing certain ones to this line that was getting ready to board.
When I saw on the monitor that they were going to Riyadh, I felt sick to my stomach. Saudi Arabia is not a nice place for a housemaid. None of the countries in this region are particularly known for their kindness to household help, but Saudi is notorious. The Sri Lankan government even started limiting their citizens from going to Saudi on these types of visas after a Sri Lankan housemaid/nanny was beheaded earlier this year.
Now how am I supposed to get on a plane and enjoy my vacation? A friend reminded me that God loves these women even more than I do and that I’m not responsible for saving them. I left our housemaid with plenty of money, access to our entire house, and a week with nothing to do but make sure the dog was fed and happy. That is the best I can do.