When she finally arrived in our house yesterday afternoon, we could feel our body relaxing, our mind winding down, even the baby was laughing. Who is she? our new maid!
You might think that we are so lazy or spoil that the arrival of a maid can makes us so happy. But if you live in Indonesia and you don't have a maid, especially when you have a family with young children, you're probably: A. Too poor to have one; B. You're a super woman/man; C. You live with a huge number of extended family members.
Now, when I say poor I don't mean european / american poor, I mean you earn averagely 1 USD or less a day. Because in Indonesia, even the middle class have at least one live in maid. And if you are the rising middle to upper class you probably have one live in maid, a full time nanny for each of your children and even a full time driver. The real mark that you've "arrived", you have at least 3 maids, a garderner, 2 full time drivers, and at least one full time security guard for your house.
The reason why having maid is almost essential in most Indonesian household, is because labors are cheap here. In East Java, a live in maid is given about 450k-500k (about 50-55 USD) / month, a part time maid is given about 10k-20k (about 1.2-2.2 USD) per day. In Bali, the price is 50% more, because the living cost is also higher. The other reason for maids is that most things in Indonesia are still done by hand. From cooking to washing clothes, for example in most western countries if you want to cook and don't want the hassle, you just go to your nearest grocery shop / supermarket and voila, you got pre-package or frozen goods, in Indonesia, cooking means;
1. you go to the nearest wet market, for your fresh veggies, (live) meats and spices, must come early if you want to get the good stuffs.
2. Bring home your groceries, make sure you wash them thoroughly and properly, this means check for bugs n worms, n make sure no pesticide stuck on your veggies.
3. If you are going to cook Indonesian food, that means peeling, crushing and grounding your spices from scratch by hand, using pestle and mortar.
4. Almost forgot, most Indonesian food require coconut milk, which means, you buy fresh coconut flesh, grate and squeeze them yourself, by hand.
And after you finish cooking and eating, wash all the utensils by hand since dishwasher is as rare as blue moon. O, almost forgot again, most Indonesian don;t have washing machine, meaning all clothes are, again, hand washed. So, all of those things to do and young children (or a very active 8 m.o. baby like me), you can see now why a maid or two are so helpful.
When the baby hasn't arrived yet, we use part time maid to clean our house. Now, with our bundle of joy in hand cleaning the house is not only a nuisance but a huge burden. Our first maid was wonderful, she loves our baby, great at house work, hard working, reliable, and honest. Then came the Eid, being a muslim, she celebrated by going back home to her (lazy deadbeat) husband and her 2 daughters. And the cliche story happens again, the story of "my (lazy deadbeat) husband" doesn't let me go back to work. So we lost a great maid.
To fill the void and ease our burden, we used a part time maid, again, she quit coz of her kids. Finally, after days of just barely surviving, we got the call from the recruitment agent that they have the maid that fits our criteria.
I finally was able to have time for "free" massage from a friend who happened to need a body to train her masseuse therapists for her up and coming spa, also really appreciate the sane time to be able to write this blog. And praying to all the power that be, that this one stays for a long time................oooo....and if you pray with me, maybe next time i will write about the maid stories and tips about them......................
You might think that we are so lazy or spoil that the arrival of a maid can makes us so happy. But if you live in Indonesia and you don't have a maid, especially when you have a family with young children, you're probably: A. Too poor to have one; B. You're a super woman/man; C. You live with a huge number of extended family members.
Now, when I say poor I don't mean european / american poor, I mean you earn averagely 1 USD or less a day. Because in Indonesia, even the middle class have at least one live in maid. And if you are the rising middle to upper class you probably have one live in maid, a full time nanny for each of your children and even a full time driver. The real mark that you've "arrived", you have at least 3 maids, a garderner, 2 full time drivers, and at least one full time security guard for your house.
The reason why having maid is almost essential in most Indonesian household, is because labors are cheap here. In East Java, a live in maid is given about 450k-500k (about 50-55 USD) / month, a part time maid is given about 10k-20k (about 1.2-2.2 USD) per day. In Bali, the price is 50% more, because the living cost is also higher. The other reason for maids is that most things in Indonesia are still done by hand. From cooking to washing clothes, for example in most western countries if you want to cook and don't want the hassle, you just go to your nearest grocery shop / supermarket and voila, you got pre-package or frozen goods, in Indonesia, cooking means;
1. you go to the nearest wet market, for your fresh veggies, (live) meats and spices, must come early if you want to get the good stuffs.
2. Bring home your groceries, make sure you wash them thoroughly and properly, this means check for bugs n worms, n make sure no pesticide stuck on your veggies.
3. If you are going to cook Indonesian food, that means peeling, crushing and grounding your spices from scratch by hand, using pestle and mortar.
4. Almost forgot, most Indonesian food require coconut milk, which means, you buy fresh coconut flesh, grate and squeeze them yourself, by hand.
And after you finish cooking and eating, wash all the utensils by hand since dishwasher is as rare as blue moon. O, almost forgot again, most Indonesian don;t have washing machine, meaning all clothes are, again, hand washed. So, all of those things to do and young children (or a very active 8 m.o. baby like me), you can see now why a maid or two are so helpful.
When the baby hasn't arrived yet, we use part time maid to clean our house. Now, with our bundle of joy in hand cleaning the house is not only a nuisance but a huge burden. Our first maid was wonderful, she loves our baby, great at house work, hard working, reliable, and honest. Then came the Eid, being a muslim, she celebrated by going back home to her (lazy deadbeat) husband and her 2 daughters. And the cliche story happens again, the story of "my (lazy deadbeat) husband" doesn't let me go back to work. So we lost a great maid.
To fill the void and ease our burden, we used a part time maid, again, she quit coz of her kids. Finally, after days of just barely surviving, we got the call from the recruitment agent that they have the maid that fits our criteria.
I finally was able to have time for "free" massage from a friend who happened to need a body to train her masseuse therapists for her up and coming spa, also really appreciate the sane time to be able to write this blog. And praying to all the power that be, that this one stays for a long time................oooo....and if you pray with me, maybe next time i will write about the maid stories and tips about them......................
