When being a maid is more than just cleaning

When Jane Dimoso comes into your home, she has to see your house first to determine how much work is involved before she gives you a price for her services. She refuses to come in blindly. And her relationship with her employers is not very typical, says Anna Paulo, one of Jane’s customers.

Jane cleans her two bedroom house twice every week. Before Jane arrives, Anna and her housemate must make sure there is everything that Jane needs, everything she ordered for way in advance. Windex window cleaner, (nothing else will do) and a feather duster are on top of Jane’s list. If it happens that one of the things Jane needs aren’t there, Anna and her housemate apologise with guilty smiles and scamper off to their rooms to hide while Jane cleans the house.

When you see Jane for the first time, her dark skin would be glowing, lips would be glossy, ears pierced, hair braided and bangles hanging in her arms. She would greet you with charm and elegance. And it wouldn’t be until further along the conversation that you learn that the 33 -year-old is a professional maid in Dar es Salaam and proud of it. Appearance is everything, says Jane. She acknowledges that her work has a certain perception, which is immediately crushed by the way she presents herself. If she is ‘the cleaning lady’, it is only logical for her to be clean.

Jane’s work ethics

Jane’s working conditions are very unique. She moves between several homes a week and she comes in and out of homes without seeing her employers, sometimes even for months. They leave a key for her to make her way in and they would pay her through mobile money services or sometimes, place the cash on the table. With such an arrangement, Jane has learnt to value faithfulness in her work, she says. She would never take anything that isn’t hers. And her principle is that, whatever you see inside the house remains inside the house. She has imposed these values on her workers as well. She has three employees working under her.

“I like doing my best, in anything that I sow. I give my all when I take on a job,” she says. She reminds those who are picky with work that every work is hard. Whatever you decide to do, do it diligently and with faithfulness, she says. Although cleaning is a hard job, it requires a lot of physical strength, she still loves it. It is not the kind of job people esteem, Jane knows a share of that. “You look poor as a maid, even friends and family scorn you,: she says. She has experienced that a lot, even from neighbours. But she doesn’t take their words to heart. “I make money with my ‘bad job’. What are they making?” she says with a laugh and adds, “I would like to be so successful that they see the fruits of my labour. Not in any other job, but this which they despise.”

The journey she took

When Jane was a little girl, she dreamed of being a doctor. It was a huge deal for a child raised in Manzese, a low income locality in the city. On completing her primary education in Morogoro in 1996, her mother got her to nursing school a year later. But a few months into the course, Jane’s twin sister was involved in an accident and Jane had to drop out of school to help care for her. And also, her parents could no longer support her studies financially. Her dream was shattered. The young Jane had to find something else to do with herself. Her sister in law helped her get a job in a nursery school instead, as an office attendant. She would clean and also help manage the children.

It happened that in 2003, when they had moved to Kimara, Jane had to ask for a leave of absence to be home for a family emergency. But when she went back to work a month later, her position was already filled. She found another employment at a store, selling charcoal. It wasn’t until 2006 that she returned to her former employer. A year later, when she went for her annual leave, Jane felt too idle at home. She immediately found a temporary job at Infinity Communications, an ICT company owned by Stella Sakia. She felt like this was a better opportunity for her, since she was getting the same salary but would work for fewer hours. She would work from 7am to 6pm at the school, but 8am to 1pm at her new job. And she had just started tailoring school. Her new job gave her ample time to do both. Jane decided to stay with Stella. And that was when her whole life changed.

A lasting friendship

On seeing Jane and Stella together and hearing how they both spoke of each other, it would only be logical to think that they were blood sisters, and that is what Stella says of Jane. “She is a sister God forgot to give me,” she says, her arms around Jane. The two women were born on the same year, the same month, just days apart.

“We clicked instantly when we met,” Stella recalls. Shortly after Jane came into her life, Stella asked her to work at her home. “When she came into my house, she turned it upside down. It was hard to recognise my own place. And it is strange that she uses the same things that I would use. Somehow, she adds a magic touch to it.” And when Stella got married and had a child, she asked her to move in with them. Jane remembers how her mother didn’t like the idea at all. She didn’t like her daughter living with strangers. “So it happened that my mother had travelled, that’s when my father let me move out. It was the only way,” she says with a laugh. With time, and when her mother saw that her daughter was living well with the Sakias, she was more comfortable with Jane’s decision. And the Sakias would also visit Jane’s parents like their own.

Growing wings

When Stella had her second born, Bernard in 2010, there was more work in the house. They had to find extra help. Yet, Jane was still able to do her daily chores at the Sakias and some extra work elsewhere. She would wake up at 3a.m. clean the house, and do whatever she was supposed to. She was out of the house by 9a.m. and would return by 5p.m. to help prepare dinner. The other girl’s task was to handle the baby exclusively. In some instances when the other maid left her job, Jane would have to change her schedule. She would cancel all other jobs outside the Sakia home because theirs was her first priority, she says.

Stella explains, “Jane started going to my brother’s house to clean, it was just a walking distance from my house. That was also good for her because she would earn some more money. People ask me, how could I do such a thing. It might sound weird that I let her work for other people while working for me. The thing about Jane, she is the kind of person that makes you want to bless her. You would be a selfish person if you wouldn’t want to see her excel.”

“Jane loves my children and they love her too. All of them -- Brian, Bernard and Bradley -- have passed through her hands. They are usually very sad when she leaves the house, and when she comes back they are so excited. Sometimes they are more excited than how they usually are when they see me that it makes me wonder what does Jane have”, she says with a laugh.

Jane doesn’t wake up so early anymore to do chores for the Sakias. She manages the two maids that are in the house and she is also starting her own business. “Stella has been very supportive. She is the one who encouraged her to venture out on her own and even start my own company,” Jane says.

To this, Stella responds, “And how could I not? What I give her cannot suffice to sustain her livelihood for the rest of her life. I would like for her to touch and change other people’s lives, just as she has mine. She has a beautiful heart and great people-skills I took her to Veta and I give her money for her daily upkeep. But I am her sister now. I do it not as her employer, but like her sister. We are family now. I even feel goosebumps just talking about her. I want to cry.”

Jane started cleaning buildings last year. She joined Veta in January this year for a three month certificate course in Cleaners and Office Attendant and another in Home and Banquet Management. She is currently in the process of registering her cleaning company, Nevid Professionals Limited. She has now purchased her own cleaning equipments and has three people working for her. Her goal is to see her company soaring high, and to impact the same spirit in others working in this field.

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