Friday, April 22, 2005

Saga of finding a maid

Well, we decided to get a maid at last. Contacted a maid agency referred by Donna.
It was run by an old retired couple. After going thru their file of candidates , we picked out about 3 and picked one that he recommended who had worked here before. One of the clause in the maid employment terms is that employers hv to put up $5000 as a bond and if the maid runs away, employer forfeits the bond. We were also warned maids who have worked here may have relationships built here and some may go astray. Apparently so for some Indonesian maids who run away with boyfriends they made here and they could easily fit in.
After we decided on this one, we find out 5 days later that she was diagnosed w some lung infection at the Manilla check up. So now, we are back to square one. We now choose another one from the file and this one was fresh. We have flown our mother in law to be here to coach her in cooking. So, after much delay, the maid arrives in Singapore. Unfortunately our mother in law had to return , so now we tell the maid agency lady boss to help train the maid whilst she is being processed and staying w them. 5 days later, we get a call from the agency to say they need to retain her another 2 days as she seems rather easily confused.
We got her finally and she seems nice. Lina started her on the ironing and that took almost half the day. The next day, after we came back fr lunch, we get this bombshell from her. She said she is coughing badly and probably have a relapse of her TB she contracted 2 yrs ago...!
Lina almost flipped and got the agency to come escort her out immediately. Will continue the saga in another post