(A tribute to my amahs)
Before that English n Malay saya hancur. Segalanya tunggang tebalik.
It's true all along that you never know what you've got until it's gone. For the past 7 days of my life, happiness, comforts, tears, sadness were all blended together to produce unforgettable rojak. For the first time in my entire life, 2 amahs were serving in my house. Their presences able to make my 7 days so different.
I asked myself…”Apakaannnn? dorg amahs sja x ahhh, bhapa sadihh ane?”
Maybe they are just amahs but they taught me a value that no one around me, neither friends nor even families has brought up to me before. A value that I shall always bear in mind. A value that has made me realized that we are actually born under lucky stars that we tend to ignore. We should be glad by that fact instead.
Our lives are so spoilt. We tend to be blindfolded by all those luxuries and comforts that met the eyes. We never realize of what we already own but instead graving for more. Based on that statement, I could say that, We All Are greedy and never satisfy with what we have possessed.
We then become such lazybones. We are reluctant to pull ourselves out of comfy beds or couches, we ignore our chores, we are too lazy to iron our Baju sekolah and tudungs, get them straight up crinkles-free. We don’t have time to prepare our stockings, and kasuts. We don’t even bother to wash our garments clean.
We never bother to do all these things. All these are our essentials, there are parts of us, another half of us. We should be taking care of our own responsibilities. We should be doing these ourselves. We are too lazy for all these.
Thanks to amahs. They do everything for us. They get everything ready for us. They prepare our clothes to be worn the next day. They ensure our garments free from bacteria. They fix clothes from crumpled ones to straightened and wearable ones. They cook us meals. They do everything even simple things like pouring hot water rah MEE CUP.
They wash our pinggan mangkuk, periuk belanga dan anything yang sewaktu dengannya. THEY DO EVERYTHING.
We are left with everything is neat and well-prepared. We are left with no worries as everything will get fixed up for us. We are so pampered from all these comforts without even releasing that these luxuries may backfire. We never do all the aforementioned tasks. We never bother to. Amahs do them all. And this continues until the amahs are no longer there for us. Until then, we realize we can’t get everything done. We never do. No amahs, No baju, No tudungs, No clean garments, No Cup Mee. All those prosperities have made us to loss such valuable lessons and skills that are essentials for us to acquire. We maybe rich in big bucks. We can get almost anything that we are obsessed with but we maybe poor in surviving skills and lacking of experience that we can’t even do simple things!!!!
Here is the story
The one in pink is the newcomer. She came 7 days ago and left yesterday. For six days, she was a trainee and the one in black was her guru. She was supposedly to replace the one in black since she was going back to Indonesia today. But it turns out the one in pink left early tia plang. Why? (make sure kamu standby tissue)
Owh k here is why.
The new amah (in pink) has came to Brunei around 6 months already and has changed majikan for 5 times and my dad is the fifth. For the past 3 months, she worked with a majikan who is Pakistanist – a doctor. She suffered badly working arah d majikan.
Being a doctor, the majikan is a strict person and put Cleanliness as her priority. The new amah told us that the majikan demanded the kitchen to be well cleaned and the amah sometimes had to wash the same pinggan mangkuks until 5 times. Everything must be spankling clean. The majikan sometimes yelled at her that scared her half to death and accidentally broke pinggan mangkuk. Due to these broken mangkuk, the amah owns BND 500 and she has to repay before going back to Indonesia.
Be a pakistanist, she obviously doesn’t eat rice. All she eats is makanan asasi orang Pakistan which is different from makanan asasi orang timur. The amah complained to us that (this is the sadihh part)
“selama 3 bulan saya tidak merasa sebutir nasi pun”
Sadihhh ati saya…..I tried to act cool and heartless so that I did not cry.
For the past 3 months, she had been eating Chapatti during breakfast only. If she was hungry then, with nothing she cud do but to bear with her growling stomach hoping that time cud pass by quickly and morning wud appear so soon.
I’m the only one in my family who always eat. Tapi dalam 6 hari ane, kedudukan saya tergugat. The amah came up and stole the title and iatah yg paling banyak makan.
I know that was her first time to taste rice. Maybe that was a recall for her to know the taste of rice that she has lost 3 months ago. I saw her cheerful smile and satisfied face whenever she sat down with the old amah (in black) in the dining room.
Terasa saya betapa bahagianya ia dapat merasa nasi.
Yesterday, my dad received a call from agent amah telling that the new amah was asked to work at her previous majikan, on the demand of the majikan herself with alasan that the new amah has not paid the so-called debt. With nothing the new amah cud do, she packed her belongings. While packing, I cud see that tears started to roll down on her both cheeks.
She thought that she would happily work in our family and wud never loss sight nasi anymore. But now she is back to where she was once belonged. Why bother coming back tothat suffering hell if she cud work happily here?. Money makes people work harder even if she would have to eat herself out. Despite her unwillingness, she needs to go. She knows she must put her soul and heart together in order to repay BND 500 to the previous majikan.
She knows that she needs to be tougher to work salaryless for another 4 months of suffering. Back in Indonesia, her family is counting every second hoping her to chip in some money but for the past few months, that hope is buried six feet under. No money is sent but kept to repay to the majikan instead.
(ani sadihh lagii)
With her belongings packed, Zuhur prayer performed, self dressed and she was ready to go. Before she stepped out she managed to have her last meal in my house. I saw how rakus ia makan..Subhahanallah..
While waiting for her to finish her lunch, it occurred to me that was probably the last time for her to have taste of nasi. No nasi in upcoming 4 months I am positive that she will miss this moment. I let her to finish her lunch with last gulp of manisan.
The one in black is the old comer. She is like 1 year older daripada saya. She started working when I was in form 4 so supposedly f ia nada jadi amah, she would have studied in fom 5. But she told us that her family couldn’t afford her education plus she was babal at time then she decided to follow her sister’s footstep and became amah.
We are so lucky living in Brunei. We have free education, free medical check-ups complete with full package of facilities. We have lot of opportunities kan study aboard, inside scholarship and so on. But we still never glad of what we have.
Education, back in Indonesia doesn’t come free and cheap. Apatah tah lagi kan ke hospital, kan cabut gigi lagi bebayar apatah lagi for surgery.
Alhamdullilah, we have everything free di Brunei ane.
Last month, I accompanied my dad to JPMC for monthly appointment and to save time I, all by myself went to the pharmacy arah next building, carrying along a prescription to get my dad’s segala ubat-ubatan while my dad was still not done with his check-ups. I handed to prescription to a lady, a pharmacist I suppose. After a few minutes of ‘Merek-ing’ sekitar arah rak-rak ubat, I was given all the prescribed ubat-ubatan and receipt.
Terkejut jantung saya meliat receipt ahh. Ubat yang kana-kana bagi dua tiga buting ja nganya tapi harganya $1080.98. fuhhhhh semangat. Nada mahal dimana.
Tapi no worry. Thank to the government. They ensure every penduduk receive well treatment. They paid $1080.98 for us. That was just for the ubats not yet the surgery.
But in Indonesia, even 1000 rupiah is hard to find.
The old amah left her school and worked as amah just to afford her family and I heard her mother is sakit. In desperation,she accepted to work as amah with a little experience.
It showed that betapa sakitnya kan mencari duit. Tapi tane sanang saja kan membuang usin. Membali PSP lah, kasut yang mahal lahh, makanan yang brabisly mahal lah tapi rasanya nada ja seberapa. We thought that we have big bucks then they would never run out but coming in instead. It showed to us that we should be glad being Bruneian. Mewah sana sini, nada lagi kan payah, menggali tanah mencari ubi kan makan. Everything is served. We may be happy now tapi Tuhan itu maha adil. There will be time when we will experience suffer and must learn from it.
Be glad of what u already have. Appreciate things/persons around you before its too late that they might left you one day.
I am the amah now….aiyaaaa. Never mind, My mum promises to give me $500 hahah for gaji
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