She’s HERE! The newest member of our ever-expanding Groleau household… Introducing BLUT PAW (pronounced ‘Blue-po’), our very own Foreign Domestic Help! Haha… fooled you, didn’t I? I bet some of you thought the twins have arrived… well, they are still happily squirming around my belly, already 35 weeks old.
Blut Paw comes from Myanmar, where the average university graduate earns S$50-60 a month. As a domestic help in Singapore, she earns S$300 from us, though she first needs to pay off her hefty agency loan of S$1,700. So for the first 6 months, she practically has no salary. After that however, the earnings she gets will probably all go into her savings (since lodging, food and basic necessities are all bore by us) and by the time her contract expires in 2 years’ time, she will bring home a tidy sum of money for her family. I think this is every domstic help’s desire – to work hard for a couple of years and when they finally go home, they can provide for their family, perhaps buy a motorbike or build a house.
So far she’s been with us for 2 days. Her English is quite quite terrible and communication is very painful. When I want to explain something to her, it works better if I ask her to sit down and I write down what I want to say. Just now I spent a good 15 minutes trying to ask her whether she prefers to eat together with us or to eat by herself. Tim and I could sense from the 3 meals we had together that she felt quite awkward at the dining table. When she finally replied that she prefers for Tim and I to eat first before her, I was so surprised that I drew illustrations a second time just to ensure it’s not a miscommunication. Indeed she prefers for us to eat first. Perhaps with us at the same table, she feels restricted, not daring to eat her portion and not daring not to finish the food? Well, since this is her preference, we shall abide by it.
Another disappointing thing is that she doesn’t really know how to cook. At least not Chinese dishes anyway. Hopefully this will improve with time. Unfortunately I don’t cook either so it’s not going to be possible for me to teach her. Tim’s better at this then I am. I think we will teach her to make Tim’s meat spaghetti one day. Mum’s coming over on Wed to teach her a couple of dishes. I’m thinking of raw rice fish porridge, steamed egg with pork and sweet and sour prawns. I salivate just thinking about my mum’s home cooked food =)
The good news is Tim and I both feel that she’s quite fast at learning thing and can take initiative. So far that part is good. She does take a long time to get things done, compared to our usual weekly helper Sylvia, but we don’t mind it for now since there is not much chores to be done anyway. When the babies arrive, she will probably have to really speed up. We plan to ask Sylvia to come over one last time and show Blut Paw the ropes, because neither Tim nor I am up to Sylvia’s efficiency. I don’t even know how she cleans the floor but it is always sparkling clean after she’s done her round.
We were moaning the loss of our privacy in the last few days before her arrival. Afterall, what is home but a place you can strut around naked and have a burping competition when you please? Well, so far our uniform around the house has gotten more civilised, and unsavory noises are kept to a minimum. But in other aspects, it hasn’t been as bad as we thought. I guess that’s mainly because Blut Paw spends more time in the kitchen and her room, leaving us in our private worlds in the living room, study and bedroom. Anyway, once the babies are here, I think we will better appreciate Blut Paw’s presence and the price to pay for privacy would really not matter then.
As the Chinese saying goes, “Every new journey starts with the first step“. The lead-up to parenthood starts one step at a time… first the domestic help arrives, and we lost some of our privacy, our couplehood. Then the babies will arrive, and we will completely lose all notions of romantism… And hopefully gain a new perspective on life.
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