Domestic Helper

We finally took a great leap forward and engaged a domestic helper to help out in the afternoon 6 days a week. We shall identify her as Stephanie. She arrived in Beijing last Saturday from Guangzhou. Her sister, a domestic helper for another family we know and someone we had engaged ocassionally while I was away in Melbourne in January, called Grace on Monday morning if we needed some permanent help. Stephanie started work that afternoon!

The train she took to Beijing was standing room only, a 24 hr journey. Amazing for a non-festive period. I can speculate two reasons for that. First implies how much infrastructure China still needs going forward. Second implies an influx of migrant workers who have lost their factory jobs down south all heading north searching for work. Media has been touting some 20 million jobs lost and thousands of factories closed in the south as exports declined sharply. Stephanie is one of those 20 millions. Stephanie used to work 12 hrs a day, 7 days a week at that factory for RMB700 a month without any meal provided.

She left her 8 yr old boy and 6 yr old girl to her mother-in-law in her 70's, (still ploughing the land). Stephanie and her husband used to work in the same factory in a town some distance away from Guangzhou. Husband is still there, a lucky one with a job. While they could visit their kids in their home village once every month in the past, Stephanie wont see her kids again until next year during Spring Festival in February, possibly another standing room trip by train.

Stephanie never finished high school. I asked her how she can communicate with her family in the south. She said she used her mobile phone but sparingly because it costs so much. I suggested she used my computer to do internet calling. Her reply surprised me. She claimed with a genuine sense of pride that her husband never smoke, drink, gamble nor 'play the internet'. Somehow she associated internet with 'smoke-filled internet bar/cafe'.

My peak hours from 345pm to 515pm is now a lot more manageable. Besides picking Kristine at 345pm, Kimberley at 515pm, and Kristine's piano lessons in between, the challenge had always been getting dinner hot and ready for Kristine at 530pm. The home is now a lot cleaner and tidier too.