Ada’s Story

by Global Ministries | published on Oct 10, 2014

Bruce and Linda Hanson – Honduras

Ada is our new trabajadora, our helper in the house who watches the children when we aren’t home, helps with cooking, laundry and cleaning and, as a side benefit, entertains us with perpetual stories (and I mean perpetual!) of her life’s adventures.

Bruce and Linda Hanson – Honduras

She is the mother of two daughters, age two and four. Her husband left for the United States shortly after the birth of her second daughter, promising to send her money in support. She has received no support and has heard through a friend that her husband has since remarried in the United States and has a child with his new wife. Her daughters stay with her mother while she works (even though we invited them to live with us).

Ada told us about her last employment, which lasted all of 15 days. The family that employed her is our neighbor, two houses down. This is her description of her work. Her day began at 5 am when she was to provide breakfast for the family, with each member of the family requesting a different thing to eat. She cooked whole beans and corn tortillas with sour cream for the husband, eggs, refried beans and flour tortillas for the wife, pancakes or waffles for the children, and made two or three different kinds of juice for the family depending on their desires. Then she washed all the dishes and began her other cleaning tasks. Each day she was required to mop all the floors in the house three to four times, vacuum the sofas inside and out twice, take out the garbage twice daily, and dust all the furniture and woodwork once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Her boss would hide cracker wrappers in the sofa cushions to try to prove that she wasn’t cleaning adequately. In between cleaning tasks she made lunch and dinner, a complicate affair of multiple courses and again with different preferences of the family catered to, followed by washing more dishes. Twice a week she did laundry, including taking down all the curtains in the house and washing them weekly. She washed all the clothing by hand in the pila, the cement water tank behind the house, then in the washing machine. After line drying the clothes were ready for ironing “right down to pajamas and underwear” she assured us. She would iron until ten or eleven at night, then fall exhausted into bed to being again the next morning.

She was responsible for carrying water up and down the stairs to family members when they called, answering the phone and door and being available during meals to serve the family. She didn’t eat with the family, but alone in her room after they had finished eating.

Ada was given a day off, Sunday. But, she tells us that on her return on Monday morning all the cleaning and dishes from her day off awaited her, including dirty casserole dishes and platters stacked inside the oven.

After two weeks of this Ada, although desperate for money to feed her children, decided she had had enough. She said the deciding factor, the thing that bothered her more than the huge amount of work, and the poor treatment was that she was required to throw out all leftover food, saving nothing to be reused. This, she said, in a country where half of the children go to bed each night hungry, was a sin.

She gave her notice and asked to be paid for her two weeks work. The owner refused to pay her. When she said she would report her to the Labor Department in the government, she was told that her husband was good friends with the head of the Labor Department. So she left, and only after pressure from another neighbor three days later did she receive her pay, 1000 lempiras, or about $55.

What we find most amazing about Ada, is that despite the circumstances life has thrown at her she has an amazingly good self-concept, and a positive attitude towards life that is inspirational. When asked how she has been able to maintain such a good self concept, such self esteem, such a positive outlook she talks of individuals in her life that have helped her, that taught her about her worth and that helped her to decide what her priorities are. “My husband?..” she comments, “I am obviously better off without him.” And about her previous employer she says, “It is sad that someone who grew up poor like she did, forgets. She thinks she is better than me because she is rich and I’m not, but God loves me and values me as much as her,” she says. Finally, Ada talks of the importance of her faith, and of faith education offered at the Catholic church to remind her that she is worthy, important and loved. When we hired her she accepted the job with one condition. “I won’t work on Sundays,” she said. “I go to mass on Sundays.”

What does the future hold for this bright, social young woman with the contagious smile, the chatty disposition and the positive outlook? She hopes to go to school some day. She is unsure what she will study. But first she must provide for her children. She is interested in the Maestra en Casa (teacher in the house) program, a radio program which provides educational opportunity to young people who want to continue their education. Weekly radio education is supplemented by weekend classes, one center which is the Theological Community where we work. In the meantime, we are both delighted to have found each other.

Bruce and Linda Hanson are assigned to the Christian Commission on Development (CCD) to serve the Honduran Theological Community (CTH). Bruce is teaching HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care, while Linda is teaching theological courses.