Serve but don’t swim

There is an apocryphal story that has circulated around Beirut in various versions and goes something like this: a Filipina woman is swimming in the pool of an elegant private club. The Lebanese staff frantically tell her to get out, since domestic workers aren’t allowed in the pool. The story’s denouement comes when it is revealed that the Filipina woman is the wife of the ambassador — not a maid.  Someone unfamiliar with regional folkways could be excused for not understanding the story. But for those living in Lebanon, or in Cairo or Dubai, certain nationalities have become code for specific professions: Slavic nations produce prostitutes, Egyptians are doormen and Syrians manual laborers — while Ethiopian, Sri Lankan and Filipina women are invariably domestic workers. So ingrained are these stereotypes that the most common word for a maid in Lebanon is “Sri Lankan.” The story about the wife of the