“The host family is nice and I like playing with the children. Playing with children is not real work.” Lisa said.
“Games, cooking—that’s not working? They are using you. You just don't see it. Do you know what the average babysitter costs? It's much more than what they pay you. Do you know what a babysitter costs, one who is taking care of four children? Can you not see that you are absolutely dependent on these strangers? They decide what are you doing today, what and if you are eating and when you can have a free hour!” Her friend continued.
This opened Lisa's eyes. She had never considered any of this before. Suddenly, she felt painfully aware of the past weeks of her life. She was a slave. She was being used by this family. She was being taken advantage of. Her friend was right. She was also dependant on them.
“How many hours are in your contract?” Her friend asked.
“20 hours a week.” Lisa answered. Her friend nodded
“You've already spent that 20 hours in a single day.” She pointed out. Lisa nodded.
“Do you really want to spend a year of your life here? Are you crazy?” Lisa didn't know how to respond. “What else would I do?”
“Go out and meet people. Go to parties and make new friends. Go find a job and work for a normal salary. Study and travel and enjoy your life. Freedom is the most important thing you have,” Her friend continued, but Lisa stayed quiet.
“Lisa, this family didn't buy you in some catalog. You're not a possession. You're a human being. Your contract says you should only work with the children for 5 hours in a day. So, don't let them push you around and force you to do more than you agreed to.”
Lisa got off the computer shortly after, by request of the host parents. She spent the whole night thinking about this conversation. She replayed it in her head as she tossed and turned in bed. She was nothing more than a toy to these children. She felt silly for giving up the life she had to come and be a slave to this spoiled and ungrateful family.
But Lisa was too insecure, naïve, and patient to fight for her freedom.
One evening lying in bed, Lisa started to cry. How depressed her soul was on this rainy evening. How thrilled she was by the thoughts in her rebel heart. She was too insecure, naive, and patient to fight for her freedom. Why should she suffer so much in this host family? She absolutely did not fit into this wealthy host family. As a poor au pair, she had nothing in common with rich kids and their host parents. She would never be treated as a family member, but only the hired help. She was an eyesore to them, foreign and their opposite by nature and aspirations.
After five hours of playing with the baby, Lisa was again fed. She received a small mug of coffee and a slice of brown bread. She greedily swallowed the bread and coffee, but her hunger was not at all appeased. There followed a half-hour rest, and then Lisa’s work continued again. Then she was given a glass of water with noodles, and then it was bedtime.
As Lisa had left behind a comfortable family, home, and affectionate parents and friends, she felt the separation acutely. The wind of sadness was in her heart, and the chaotic noise confused her peace of mind. Lisa became feverish, wanting to howl even louder than the wind. The twilight soon turned into thick darkness, and she wanted to mess around in defiance.
19
The hours Lisa spent the morning and afternoon in the bare, fashionable mansion were not pleasant, quiet, happy. She was despondent. She felt like such a fool, humiliated. She was oppressed by her ignorance, poverty, brutality—everything she saw and heard around her. But she didn’t want to feed her hatred and contempt for these feelings. She knew that they were bad, and that was a big step forward. She would try to overcome them. Tomorrow, she hoped she could partly prevail over them, and after a few weeks, perhaps they would be quite subdued. And after two or three months the joy with which she would be watching the successes of her host kids, a change for the better in them, would probably give her peace of mind, and the disgust that she felt today would be completely forgotten.
All the tyrannical bullying, the haughty indifference of children, the disgust, all stirred up in her disturbed mind. Lisa thought, “Why am I always doomed to suffering and humiliation, always guilty, always punished? Why are they always unhappy with me? Why are any attempts to please somebody useless? I'm afraid though in anything sinned, I am trying to conscientiously fulfil all their obligations, and they call me bad, in the morning until noon, and from noon till night.”
Lisa wanted a free, independent life as an elder sister, but she felt like a prisoner. She had neither privacy nor free time. They had no interest in her, and Lisa felt like an outsider. Although it was intended to be a cultural exchange programme, Lisa felt that she had been lied to.
The contract that Lisa had signed was for one entire year as an au pair. There were many parts of the contract that the host family was not meeting. At the same time, Lisa knew that her au pair agency was powerful. Lisa was unable to quit her position or she would have to face a large fine, one she would not be able to afford. She had no way out of the contract she had signed. She could not tell her parents how unhappy she actually was. She hadn’t fulfilled her wish of travelling yet. There was no way back.
The only hope that Lisa had to escape this host family was to find another one.
Lisa was given a cellphone from the host family. It was small and cheap. It had no features and the children told Lisa that it was a piece of garbage. But it was good enough to make a phone call and that was what Lisa needed.
After lunch, she was sitting alone with one of the children. Staying alone with the toddler while her host family was in the garden, she grabbed the cellphone, hid behind the sofa and called the agency.
“Hello. I work as an au pair. I am totally unhappy with the family,” she whispered, fearing that her host family could hear her.
“Why?” The male voice was not particularly friendly.
After almost two months of this imprisonment, Lisa was ready like never before to fight for her freedom, and she continued: “I work a lot more than 20 hours a week. I have four children. The family lied to me; everything that was in the contract was a lie. I get no language courses, no free time.” Lisa began to cry.
“You cannot leave the family alone during the holiday season,” the male shouted.
“I would love to work in a big city,” she suggested.
“What? Do you have a boyfriend there? Or a job?” he wondered.
“No, I don’t.”
“Okay, call me after the holidays,” the male voice ended their conversation.
While she was on the phone, she attempted to mask the phone call from the children. She didn't want them to overhear the conversation she was having with the agency. Unfortunately, this was not a success and one of the children told the parents what Lisa had been doing.
Later on, when Lisa was cooking dinner that evening, little Nataly came to her and hugged her. “Why do you want to leave us?” she whispered.
“How do you know?” Lisa asked, surprised.
“We all heard yesterday when you called the agency!” Nataly exclaimed.
“I want a little more freedom,” Lisa tried to explain.
“You can have a day off just for you!” Nataly said.
So the host family knew about her conversation. Later, Lisa discovered that her host family had hidden a baby phone in almost every room. They spied on her.
After discovering that Lisa was about to leave her host family, the children stole her cell phone and put it in the washing machine and called Lisa afterward.