Refugees in Saudi Arabia

Refugees in Saudi Arabia

I lived in Saudi Arabia for 5 years, and saw many things that most people don't get to see in their life. Many were great things, but others were things that really made me grateful for my life and for what I have. Life there is a little bit different than it is here in Colombia. Here we are used to see female maids in our house, but over there that is very rare. Because women couldn't be maids for non-saudi families, then the men had to do it. The male maids were called house boys, and they would do everything a normal maid would do. Most house boys over there were from India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. The house boy and gardener communities were extremely poor, and they had to pay most of their salary to the sponsor that sent them to Saudi, while the other part of their salary was sent it to their families. This meant that they had very little money to buy food or clothes for themselves. It was awful to see them working under the 50 degree arabia sun. It was especially hard for them during Ramadan because they had to fast for the entire day without drinking water, and then they had to eat with the little money they had left when fasting was over. I remember seeing their exhausted faces while they worked; it made me feel terrible. I can't even begin to imagine what they have to go through everyday because I am use to being in my little air conditioned bubble where I only had to go to school and back; while they had to work all day in the awful heat. 

Now that I read an article of the refugees from Syria, Sudan, and Iraq; I see the house boy, the gardeners and the refugees sort of similar. In a way the gardeners and the house boys are some sort of refugees too. When a person goes to a another country and gets refugee status, they get very little money, which has to serve an entire family. I remember having a conversation with one of our house boys a long time ago. His name was Shree, and he would tell me about his family back in India. He told me that he had to work for 6-8 months before he could go back home and see his family. He could only be with his family for 2 months before he had to go back to work. He also told me that it was really difficult to maintain a connection with his kids and his wife. This broke my heart. That's what all the gardeners and house boys have to go through to support their family. This needs to change, because entire families are being affected by this lack of care in people,s behave. If I could go back I would give more things to them like: food, clothes, and toys, so they can send to their families. This act of giving back is what the world needs right now, so little kids that don't have the opportunities we have today can have a chance to have a real childhood.

Work Cited

Unknown, . Saudi Arabian Flag. N.d. Photograph. n.p. Web. 9 Mar 2014.                 <http://flagpedia.net/data/flags/big/sa.png>.