Maid in Thailand

Taking a Risk in the Other Land

by: Azor Periera Egos

BANGKOK - Some say live your life and be happy for what God have been given to you. But how can you live happily if you have nothing? How can you live peacefully if you need to hide?    

Chompo starts her day once she hears the rooster’s crows. She cooks fried rice, sunny side up eggs and makes hot green tea. After that she starts to clean the house and makes garden beautiful.

She is 17 years old, young, tall, pale skin, and has a long dark black hair. She still reminisces about her childhood days in Laos. “I want to be a teacher”, she says. Like every young person, she has a dream. A dream that one day she might achieve.

Unfortunately, her parent forces her to travel and work illegally in Thailand. She is one out of the hundreds of foreigner maids that work illegally in Thailand. “I hid at the back of the ten wheelers truck; beer lao delivery truck”, she says. “I don’t have a passport and my agency told me to do that.” She experienced to run from the authorities and sometimes she had been caught. “I was afraid at that time, I thought they will send me back home but they just asked for money and then left”, she explains. “I was so lucky because some illegal workers like me will be put in jail.”

She is happy working and staying inside the house. “I do cooking, cleaning the housing and washing the clothes”, she says. Though sometimes she wants to go out and see what’  Bangkok like?

Mr. Tip, her boss tried to help her to get a legal document but it is too expensive and so many papers would be needed.

Nawix (Mr Tip’s daughter) is one of her close friends. Mr. Tip’s young son is like her little brother in Laos. “I miss my family”, she says. “But I need to work for them”. “She is a very active and very helpful person” Namix says. Mr. Tip didn’t like to accept her at first because she doesn’t have passport or any legal documents. “I accept her because she is nice and if a police caught her, then I’ll just give money to them”, Mr. Tip says.

Chompo works for her family in Laos. She earns 6000 Baht then she sends it to her family every month and in Laos currency its 1,535,161 kips. Chompo’s mother doesn’t have work and her father is a farmer.

The young woman doesn’t have plan to go back home (Laos). She wants to stay, works, helps her family and saves money for herself.

Now Chompo’s friend, Nia, 17, from Laos is working as a maid at the same house. Chompo’s and her friend help each other for everyday works.

Her friend is really shy, she doesn’t want to speak, and she doesn’t like to say how she crossed the border? “I bet she’s still afraid and she’s still remembered the horrible experienced of crossing the border of Laos and Thailand”, Chompo says, “Well, it was very awful experienced for me to crossed and hid from the immigration.”

Chompo lives in Laos and her life in Thailand is totally different. She was studying in Laos, helping her father in the farm after school. In Thailand she’s working as a maid and hiding from the hands of authorities. Now she already copes the way of living of illegal worker in Thailand.

“My life here is better I earn money and I help my family”, she says. But there is a long shadow. She can be exploited and no one will know. She can be deported because she is illegal. She always has to be careful about what she does and says.

“Well, I’m living on the edge of a knife”, she says.

 @-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@-@

This is my assignment in JR201. I choose this topic because my friend have Laotian maid but I don't have any intention to look down to Laos people. To be honest I like Laos. I've been there five times and I've seen the situation in Laos. I've seen how people lives? And how they crossed the border of Laos and Thailand?

The following names above have been changed to give them protection. 

Thank you for reading