Nasi Kangkang - The Maid with Black Magic

Part 2

March 1, 2017

So today, I am very excited to announce, we have just hired our first domestic helper on a six-month trial contract. It has taken my wonderful husband a few weeks to carefully and methodically check through a number of applicants we had for the position of our housemaid to be, as well as getting in touch with several local maid agencies, and today we have decided to hire a lovely young lady called Diana. Sure, she is an Indonesian girl as we expected we would have to hire, due to our financial constraints, but she is from Surabaya, which, if I'm not mistaken, provides some of the better Indonesian's, or least as far as employment goes.

Of course, we interviewed a few girls, three from Indonesia, one from Myanmar and another from The Philippines. After a little deliberation and discussion, we quickly decided that we preferred Diana out of our accessible options. As I already mentioned, Diana is from the Surabaya region of Indonesia, is thirty years old and has previously worked as a housekeeper for an Indonesian VIP, a maid in a hotel and briefly as a nanny in a childcare centre. She has no romantic ties and no children and is only too pleased to move into our spare bedroom and live with us for the duration of her probation. We are not, in any way into modern slavery, so we have agreed that between cooking our meals, when there are no household chores to be done, her time is her own and that her services will not be required at all on a Sunday.

Diana even offered to help out with the bulk of the childcare, should I want to concentrate on my job, but I have assured her that on the whole, this won't be necessary, as I desire entirely, to be even more of a mother. All in all, Diana seems pretty perfect, she is a little younger than I'd hoped and has a beautiful figure, but I have no fear of my husband straying in that sense, I am his Queen. I just hope the reputation of Indonesian workers, does not apply to Diana.

March 12, 2017

The first week and a bit, of having Diana as a house maid has been wonderful and I really cannot argue that it hasn't. She has almost been a God send and has made my life so much easier. For any doubts I may have had about Diana's level of decency, she has worked two-fold to impress. Diana's effort has been immense, she has worked so hard to fit in with our little family unit and has strived immeasurably to please us all. The house has been spotlessly clean, from floor to ceiling. Everything has been perfectly organized, dust free, dirt free and much more immaculate than I'd have ever managed to keep it.

Everyone seemed pretty happy with Diana as well, she seemed polite, eager to please and full of integrity, nothing really like any of the horror stories about Indonesian workers out there would have you believe. And my husband loves her cooking! The meals she makes him, and my son are unbelievable, and he adores her food. I mean, I am a pretty decent cook myself and my husband never complained about what I prepared, but Diana's food seems to hit him on a whole different level and my little boy loves the food she prepares for him also.

There's lots of sticky rice, lush noodles, ample protein and vegetables, all smothered in sweet, sticky, sour and fruity sauces, all spicy and hot, with milder versions for my little boy. Naturally, I have had to make my own gluten free recipes for my own food, but I have had so much more time to do so. Admittedly, it's not all lovely and perfect so far, there is still a little bit of a language barrier, and we all need to get to know each other a little better, but so far, things are going very well.

March 16, 2017

A really nice thing happened today, which warmed my heart and convinced me even further that Diana is the perfect example of affordable home help for our family. Even though we had been really pleased with Diana's work up to today, she had struggled a little to fit into our family unit. Not that we want her to be a steady, full time family member of our family or anything, because she never will be, but for all the hard work and effort she is putting in, we would like her to feel comfortable and somewhat at home with us.

Obviously, there is a language barrier between us and an employee and employer dynamic, but we'd all quite like her to feel as if she is part of our daily life. Before today, nobody in our household had interacted with her in any way except formally. Diana likes to keep herself to herself and spend time in her room when not working and on days off, tends to spend her time at the City Plaza, with other Indonesian's working in Singapore, who she has quickly befriended. But anyway, I'll stop waffling and to cut a long story short, my beautiful little son tripped whilst playing outside and grazed his knee quite severely. He was obviously very upset; his Dad was at work and I was upstairs inside the house. So, when he came running into the house in tears, his knee dribbling blood down his shin, the first adult face he came across was of course Diana's. By time I arrived downstairs and entered the kitchen, he was in a loving embrace with Diana and she was calming his distress beautifully and I think at that point, our relationship with Diana, really took a positive step.