Maids Cheap and Priceless

Live-in maids and helpers are common in middle-class homes. Even some maids, the ones who live out, and may have a child or two, have maids, usually young girls who cannot afford to go to school and will just work for room and board. The cost is shockingly low compared with other countries. I pay my maids $30 a month plus food to start, and raise to $40 over a one year period. In the more rural areas they start closer to $20. So it is quite possible to pay less, and even in Manila you won’t pay a whole lot more. I do know foreigners in upscale “villages” who pay much more, but it is not necessary. Still the costs are so low, they are a bargain.

Maids take a lot of the chores out of my life, from paying bills to shining shoes and even tying them if I wish. My helpers are more like loving, respectful daughters and friends. It is wonderful to be free from housework and errands. And the maids and helpers appreciate their jobs, and me. They are extremely respectful of older people.

I trained one of my former maids, formerly a cook for a group of Japanese students, to cook American style. She was excellent.

You may not understand until you live here how important maids and helpers are. They make your social and business interaction easier. This assumes you have a helper or two who can deal with people well. I have one that not only has the skills of a house helper but those of a social secretary, too. Presently I have a tutor for one of my maids who was an excellent student in college, but had to quit because of costs. She had taken a course in HTML. The tutor I hire for 60 pesos an hour, about $1.20 is teaching her the finer points and PhotoShop too. She types so also serves as my secretary. If she proves out I will raise her salary significantly.

Trustworthy, mature helpers are indispensable to foreigners like me. I felt I didn’t need maids when I came to the Philippines. I thought I could make it without them and save money and not be bothered by employees. I didn’t know about Filipino Maids and Filipino helpers.

But I was always running around town paying bills, cooking and washing, cleaning and wasting my time. I didn’t understand the cost/benefit ratio. In that they live in, have only one day off, they often don’t take, Filipino Maids and Filipino helpers, are unique indeed.

Select a maid and helper as you would a wife or best friend. A good girlfriend or boyfriend is easier to find than a top-quality maid or helper. You must be close to them but, at the same time, keep an employee/employer relationship: a delicate balance. If you think I am belaboring this point, you should know that books have been written about maids and helpers by expats. They are that important. Getting romantically involved with a maid or helper is one of the most unwise thing you can possibly do. Respect them as employees and even friends, but never as romantic, and God forbid never as a sex partner, even if they initiate the contact, which could happen. If you do, you will, more than likely, regret it the rest of your life.

This is my washing machine, in the back, an imported Whirlpool. It makes own hot water. I bought it so the helpers would not have to spend so much time washing clothes. The young lady in the foreground has a better way, a cleaner way to do it; a brush, soap and elbow grease.

Most who wash clothes don’t feel the washing machine gets the clothes as clean as do the hands. And it seems to me, washing is like a meditation with the women and girls So it light sweeping done every morning. Young and even older men often do their own, if not their sisters or relatives or if they don’t have helpers. It is not considered exclusively a woman’s task, though most professional washers are women, labanderas, from the Spanish. You can hire one of those part-time or full-time. All professionals are women. If you have good eyes the you can see the plug on the top in the middle hanging down on the side. It is unplugged. As far as those who wash go, it can stay that way. Think twice before buying a washing machine. I didn’t, and I am sorry.

Maids and helpers don’t just clean your house and maintain your yard. They are advisors on cultural differences and can even help you with the language if you want to learn. I am talking about a good maid. A maid can be everything from a social secretary to a guard for your house when you are away. I personally don’t have a driver, but have friends who prefer cars with drivers to taxis and jeeps. Live in drivers are about $100. They maintain your car, have basic mechanic skills, drive you, guide you, wait for you and run any errands that require a car. Some use them as body guards, but most more like helpers to carry things while they shop, and help in anyway they can.