An Ethiopian nanny nurses her newborn child and constant worry whilst trapped in lockdown in Mahboula

English transcript | نسخة عربية

Nationality: Ethiopian
Occupation: Nanny
Date of interview: 10 August 2020
Language of interview: English

Meriyemi is from Ethiopia. She has lived in Kuwait for eight years with her husband and, now, their baby girl. Her daughter was born in Kuwait, while her five-year old son was born in Ethiopia and lives with his grandmother back home. Meriyemi loves her family so much, but this pandemic has made her feel a little crazy, worrying all the time. Her mother and sister in Ethiopia worry about her too. Does the baby have enough to eat? Is the family able to buy food? Thankfully she has a really good employer who she loves. She works as a nanny, and the family has continued to pay her salary and supply her with milk and diapers for her baby, and even food when it was not available. Even whilst Mahboula was under lockdown, her employers would come to the police station to give Meriyemi her salary and supplies across the barricades. Although she hasn’t been able to see their child for months, she still talks to her online and misses her. She is so grateful that her employers have supported her because her husband, a taxi driver, cannot work. Lockdown and curfews have made life extremely difficult. Sometimes the stores have no supplies, and shopping can take hours. Also, because they are living on one salary, she cannot send the monthly support home to her mother and her son, which makes her very sad. Prices for food in Ethiopia are very high now because people are still hoarding food due to the pandemic. Many people are getting sick. Meriyemi’s husband has recently started working again, but very few people are using taxis so he hasn’t been able to earn much.

Her baby just had her first birthday, but they did not celebrate with a cake - they were fasting, and they could not gather with their friends anyway. Usually, the Ethiopian community is very tight-knit, and they celebrate birthdays and Christmas together, sharing food on injera (traditional flat bread), along with their special coffee.

Right now, Meriyemi only meets with one friend in her building - just to help relieve her stress. Like many others, the lockdown in Mahboula has made them want to move to a new area, but it is too expensive now. Meriyemi is still afraid of catching the virus-- people don’t take care in the bakala, they use cash, no one is paying attention to the rules. She thanks God because despite so many people sick in Mahboula, her family’s health is ok. Earlier they all had terrible coughs, including the baby, but her husband insisted there was no way they could have COVID because they had stayed inside. They never got tested and to be honest, Meriyemi says, she was afraid of being separated from her baby to quarantine, and couldn’t imagine what she would do.

Meriyemi says she and her husband have learned from the pandemic that they need to make a savings plan. Meriyemi wants her children to go to university, to have books, to learn all the things she wasn’t able to. She is optimistic about the future though.

“Someday life good, someday life not good. I am accept, you know? Only pray for God. Sometimes for everything change, you know? No money, no thing, whenever you want, you can't do. I will smile. Yeah. I will smile. No angry. No angry for God. Please God [...] Something you give. I will trust for God. You know, I trust to God.”

In the clip above, Meriyemi reflects on the gratitude she feels for her sponsor, who continued to support her and her family through the extended lockdown in Mahboula.

اقرأ القصة باللغة العربية