Who needs help?

This is a quick entry as I’m a bit in a rush. But, I finally got some answers to a long-standing question of mine. Here in Yogyakarta, most homes have servants- or house helpers (pambantus)- usually live-in. In my homestay there are two permanant people and two who seem to come in and out. Though the legal working age is 15, pambantus often are even younger. If they live there, they are on duty 24hours a day, even during Ramadan. I have been wondering what would make a child or teenager be a pambantu if even as a homeless kid they could receive some kind of free public education and housing. Today I had a long conversation with one of my language teachers who explained that to be a street kid could have an even worse reputation and a pretty terrible quality of life, presumably in the children’s shelters. Pambantus occasionally are permitted to go to school, but usually just work until married (this applies to woman only I think). When I asked how someone who works 24hrs a day could possibly find a spouse, she told me there are pambantu communities that put on a variety of activities including meetings about worker’s rights and equality. My teacher’s husband is a professor of gender and worker’s rights at one of the Universities here and was invited to lecture at one of these meetings. Her own one pambantu lives in a separate house with pretty self defined work hours. While we agreed that this system of hired help is much better (which means I can’t blame this bias totally on my western mindset!), I will admit that the pambantus at my homestay seem like part of the family, albeit a very hardworking part. But there’s no denying that whether or not they are part of the family this also means they’re not at school, and instead of reading or drawing or gossiping on the phone, they’re cleaning and working from early morning to late at night.

Here’s short grammar lesson too:

Tanda Tangan = signature
Me+ tanda tangan + i = menandatangani = to sign many things
Me + tanda tangan + kan = manandatangankan = to sign for someone

This is what makes my head want to explode...