yaya sisterhood

January 25, 2012

This week one of the teachers I work with had her daughter at school because her yaya was out of town. They were talking about how in US there is Day Care so teachers never have to take their kids to school if their baby sitter is sick or not able to work. Then they looked at me and asked if we had babysitters. I said yes, I use to be baby sit and I was a bit of a nanny once.

The look they gave me. It said so much, it said:

“But you are a teacher’

“We think less of you of now”

“But you have an education”

“But you’re not a second class citizen”

“But your parents had good jobs”

And so much more along the same lines of them thinking I was above that line of work. In the Philippines they for sure have a bit of a caste system. Principals are big deals because they are Principals and not because they are in charge of the whole school. Yayas and house helpers are little deals because they are house help. Even within the teachers Master Teachers are more important than regular teachers.

These teachers really didn’t know how to take in the knowledge that me, the white educated teacher that was volunteering these two years to help their pupils was also a baby sitter. I’m glad I was.