The Journey of Mark and Linda into Haiti

Trouble with Servants

In this story, Mark and Linda are missionaries who moved to Haiti. They had hopes of serving less fortunate people. Soon after they’re arrival, they discover that life in Haiti is much more different than that of the United States. They realize that there are much more responsibilities involved in the household’s upkeep. When Mark and Linda became overwhelmed with maintaining the house and working full-time they turned to their colleagues, who recommended hiring a maid.

After hearing many recommendations from friends, Mark and Linda decided to hire Nadine. Nadine did a wonderful job maintaining the house and doing chores such as mopping, dusting, and burning the garbage. Mark and Linda were very pleased with Nadine and started to treat her as a friend. Nadine soon took their friendship for granted and Mark and Linda noticed that Nadine had stopped doing her chores. When Mark and Linda confronted Nadine about her behavior, Nadine simply ignored them.

A few weeks later, Nadine became pregnant and did and even worse job. Nadine had her niece do her chores instead but they were done poorly. Linda was frustrated with the situation and had Mark speak to Nadine. When he confronted Nadine, she told him that she was no longer lower-class due to her friendship with her white employers. This meant that she would not mop the floor or do many of her chores.

Mark and Linda thought about what to do. They contemplated firing Nadine, but that would make her homeless with a child.

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A very cruel life. They also considered hiring new help, but they could hardly afford Nadine. Their friends suggested beating Nadine to get their point across, but they thought that was a very extreme solution. Mark and Linda were stuck in a very uncomfortable situation and had no way of fixing it. Mark and Linda made the mistake of treating Nadine like family. There must be a certain distinction between employer and employee. When Mark and Linda befriended Nadine, in her mind, she was no longer their servant. She became upper-class. She believed that she was above household chores regardless of pay. Mark and Linda should have fixed the situation early on before Nadine got pregnant.

Although Nadine was doing a bad job, Mark and Linda let here stay due to their friendship. By the time they had had enough of her behavior, it was too late. Nadine was pregnant and firing her would be cruel. Mark and Linda had man options before Nadine got pregnant but they waited too long. The first thing that I would have done would be to cut her pay. I would cut her pay by a few cents from her pay each time she didn’t do one of her chores or it was done poorly. This would incentivize Nadine to work harder. If that didn’t work I would fire her completely. I would still fire her after she got pregnant because, as stated in the story, Nadine had save some money. I would help her find a new house and let her go.

Mark and Linda feel responsible for Nadine’s behavior due to the way they treated her. They did not understand, at the time, that they needed to make the relationship between employee and employer clear. Their guilt allowed Nadine to take advantage of them and their generosity. The author of this story made it very clear what the relationship between Mark and Linda and Nadine should have been and how the people of Haiti see the relationship between them. Nadine felt superior to her peers due to the bond between herself and her white employers. In Haiti, servants are very common. They are commonly referred to as peasants and the friendship that Nadine felt made her better than most, per Haitian culture. If Mark and Linda had set boundaries from the start, this problem could have been avoided.