Whining about maids

Today’s their 15th day in our household. She and the house girl arrived on October 9, 2015 at 3:30 pm.

While I was signing the employment contract, I caught the cook frowning while scanning me from head to foot and vice versa. I thought that was not a good welcome greeting. And not a good sign of things to come.

Our maids come and go, countless times. Reasons are varied. They didn’t like our house, our dogs, our food, us. We fired equal numbers too because of many reasons or simply, we didn’t like them.

Last night my husband and I were talking about our maids over dinner. I told him about my afternoon. I came home very relaxed and happy. But the two new maids made me inis. Little things, except that I just got irritated, still.

I always cover our dining table because I don’t like its color, brown.
I find it dark and I am not fond of browns. To spare the lavandera of washing too many stuffs, I instruct whoever our cook is to do spot cleaning. When the table cloth is still clean, not to replace it agad even if there’s some dirty spots, natuluan ng ulam. In this case, a spot cleaning is all it takes.
Yesterday, I saw this chocolate or blood-looking drip.
Omb—–“Cook C, i-spot clean mo ito”.
Cook C—“Palitan na lang natin yang buo”.
Omb——“Ay wag, malinis pa ito, kapapalit lang, kung ikaw ang maglalaba hindi mo magugustuhan na malinis pa eh lalabhan agad. Spot clean mo lang. Madali lang yang maalis”.

She wiped it and left it looking exactly like before. I cleaned it myself and I was able to remove the stain in less than 5 minutes.

The minute I arrived home, my routine is to go straight to our family dining area to wash my hands. Yesterday, I found the sink full of ants and dirty.
This sink is only used for washing hands and not in doing the dishes. The dirt is only from water rusts and ants. For it to become dirty, that means it’s not been cleaned for a few days or a week.

I asked the house girl to call the cook because that sink falls under cook C’s department. She was in bed. When she arrived at the kitchen, I said “Good afternoon C, sorry natutulog ka ba” Pasensya na, ipapakita ko lang itong lababo”
Omb——“Paki linis..”
I was going to say puno ng langgam, but she cut me. She didn’t wait till I finish my sentence.
Cook C—-“Kalilinis ko lang nyan kagabi. Tuwing bago ako matulog, nililinis ko yan”.

I didn’t believe her because the day before, I also requested her to clean the same sink because it was dirty.

I didn’t argue with her. I just repeated my request: Paki linis, ang daming langgam.
She replied—–“Mamaya na bago ako matulog”.

(Tell me kung hindi ka rin maiinis.)

Omb——“Paki linis na ngayon, bakit mamaya pa, para relax ka na lang mamayang gabi”.
She found another excuse—-“Mamaya na bago ako matulog, kung lilinisin ko ngayon, gagamitin nyo na naman, madudumihan ulit”.

Wow o wow.
I pretended to be bingi so as not to get irritated by her reply.
My last words —“Linisin mo na ngayon”.

This morning my husband and I were talking about our maids (again).
He shared with me his observations. That our cook is so lazy and dirty. Day one pa lang I noticed that already. It was difficult to give her instructions, train her, or suggest something to her. She’s like maid H, she doesn’t allow me to finish my sentence, sumasabad agad.

The things that I asked her to do yesterday morning she hasn’t done till now. Little things lang naman. To sweep the floor near the ref because the rain must have blown inside some dried leaves and soil. They are scattered at the side entrance of our auxiliary kitchen. I checked tonight and they are still there.

Edmund and I came home tonight at 7:30 pm. I went to the dirty kitchen, opened the ref and freezer there to check how much food we still have. I also locked the side door which was left open. I also switched off the lights. Oh no. Ang liwanag ng stove. Merong nakasinding apoy. Meaning, she cooked and forgot to turn off the stove.

I called her and told her that she forgot to turn-off the stove. “Nalimutan mong isara yung kalan”. She cooked daw their food and hurriedly brought down the casserole and pan. I didn’t get mad. Useless.

My husband said the more reason to let her go.

Yesterday afternoon, I got so irked by the house girl. As soon as I arrived home, I told her “Good afternoon, akyat ka sa taas, linisin mo yung banyo ko”.

I lock my bathroom when I am away. Ever since I left for HK, I have never asked any of the maids to clean my bathroom. I did some spot cleaning only.

“Paki linis kasi tila isang linggo na syang hindi nalinis”.

After 15 minutes, I saw her in the kitchen. I reiterated my request.
“J, akyat ka sa taas, paki linis yung banyo ko. Kunin mo yung walis at yung cleanser”.

I looked at my watch, another 20 minutes had passed and still she hasn’t come up. I could hear her voice from our bedroom. I could tell that she was in the garage and chatting with the driver.
I waited, hoping she would remember to come up. She didn’t. After another 20 minutes, I was so inis already, I went down to the garage and found her kekendeng-kendeng in front of the driver. Parang model ng Palmolive shampoo. She was tossing her beautiful long hair.

I asked why she didn’t come up to clean my bathroom. She answered ang tagal ko daw. She’s waiting daw for me to call her. She kept repeating that. She also reasoned out that the lavandera told her to wait till I called her.
Me—–“Di ba pagdating ko pa lang sabi ko sayo umakyat ka na para linisin banyo ko?”
Maid J—- “Inintay ko kayo”.
Omb——-“Dalawang beses na kita tinawag, ilang beses ba kailangan”.
Miad J—-“Sabi ni Cook C wag daw akong aakyat kung hindi nyo ako tinatawag”.

In other households, if and when something like this happens to them, maybe they just let this pass and move on.

This morning, I gave cook C a pair of brand new cotton panties I bought from the US. I made the mistake of getting a largesize, ang laki-laki sa akin. Cook C is a double XX kaya kasya yun sa kanya.
This morning too, house girl J said she got a call from the province kasi daw may emergency. Their standard alibi for leaving.
Paano kaya yun? She owed the agency money which I advanced to the agency. She also borrowed cash from me two days ago kasi daw
“mam, minumura-mura ako nung inutangan ko 5-6 kasi”.

House girl: My fault that I scolded her that’s why she’s leaving.
Cook: She’s not leaving but I am not sure if it’s good to keep her here. Edmund said she’s ang tamad and madumi sa katawan at sa paligid. At nakakatakot daw kasi ang talim tumingin. Oo nga, come to think of it, ever since she arrived, I have never seen her smile.

Some of my readers think that all I do is whine about our maids. I do whine about my maids, but that’s not all I do. I also whine about my husband, the traffic, my ubo, our drivers, and me especially.

Thanks for your understanding.

-ohmybuhay