Salima

Salima is our house mama. She cooks and cleans for us and sleeps on the lower bunk of my bed. She is in her forties and has a daughter. I'm not sure where her daughter lives or what she does.

There is another Kenyan living in our house called Beautiful. She is 18 and Salima treats her like her own. Beautiful has tuberculosis and is on medication and working on getting her strength back.

Salima makes dinner for us every night, even on her days off. She takes one or two days off a week, and gets 4 weeks vacation a year, which are practically forced upon her because she feels bad for taking time off. She gets paid 8x more a month than the typical housegirl who usually makes about 1,000 shillings or $13. She'll do our laundry for 300 shillings a load, which is all the dirty clothes we can give her. She is saving up for a sewing machine.

She was raised Christian but converted to Islam. She prays 5 times a day; the first prayer is at 5:30 am and I wake up at 4:50 when her alarm goes off. The other prayers are at 1pm, 4pm, 6:45, and 8pm. She's very open to talking about her religion, so I plan to find out more from her.

Salima is a fantastic cook. She's made beans, chicken, pasta, plantains, and chapati, among other things. Sunday, she made us mandazi - a special dough that's cooked in oil and tastes like a doughnut. We sprinkled icing sugar and spread strawberry jam on them.

Salima is incredibly strong. When she leaves on vacation, she takes 3 or 4 bags with her and carries them all on her back and head. I'm kind of looking forward to her taking a week vacation just so I can see her do this.