Friday night I hired Rowena again to watch the girls and Brian and I went to Long Beach Seafood over by East Coast Park. It's a local joint that I had read about in a couple books and some of Brian's colleagues recommended it so we checked it out for ourselves. While we were clueless about most of the menu items, we enjoyed our food and declared that it would be a good spot to take visitors for a "local" meal. We were the only Americans in the place so it definitely is not a tourist trap! Their specialty is black-pepper crab so we had to try that and we also ordered a chili crab. Our appetizer of choice was "Drunken Prawns" and it was appropriately named because a bunch of prawns (with all their parts still intact) showed up in a bowl of what we guessed was some kind of hot beer. How do you disassemble a prawn with chopsticks? I couldn't tell you because we gave that up quickly and ate most of the meal with our hands. It was tasty and fun.Saturday Elizabeth woke up with a fever and runny nose so apparently just the visit to her school was enough to make her sick! Emily is cutting three teeth at once and isn't too happy about it so between the two of them we knew we weren't venturing far from home. We did our regular Sat morning run and I'm excited that I'm finally beginning to adjust to the humidity. I no longer feel like I'm going to die from heat exhaustion after 20 minutes. I made it 32 minutes instead! Gatorade and I will be good friends during our time here.
Saturday evening we went out to dinner in Holland Village with 5 other expat couples. Tiffany, the helpful American expat I've tapped for all kinds of advice, invited us along with some friends from their building to a Middle Eastern place called Al-Hamra. I didn't know what to expect on the menu and was pleasantly surprised that it was similar to Greek and Turkish fare. It felt good to be out socializing with other folks again and it reminded me that I need to start looking for social outlets now that I'm getting more settled.
This morning I went to an agency on Orchard Road to interview housekeepers. I was eager to start the process and dreading it all at once. Honestly, it wasn't that bad but I was wishing that I had done recruiting in my past life because it probably would have made the task a little easier. First, let me explain that the housekeepers in Singapore are foreign workers. They come from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and other SE Asian countries. They are only allowed to be in Singapore because they are employed by a family here. So if they stop working for one family, then they have to find a new employer quickly or they are forced to leave. I showed up at the agency and there were 30-40 housekeepers waiting around to be interviewed or filling out their paperwork to be considered for interviews. I stuck out in the crowd as I was the first potential employer to show up. After looking through a stack of resumes, I interviewed around 15 women right there in the office with the other candidates nearby. Brian and I had discussed our criteria ahead of time - our priorities are general housekeeping, cooking and taking care of the children - in that order. And on top of that, we need someone with good English skills - both written and verbal - so she can follow a recipe and communicate with us. I've had enough language issues back at home to know that English skills are important. We also decided to limit our initial candidates to Christians, and by doing that, my list quickly became all Catholics from the Philippines.
Not really knowing what to expect from them, it took me a couple interviews to figure out that I actually had some chance of finding a good fit today. I ended up selecting 4 women to come to our condo for a second interview, with two of them being clear favorites. I let Brian take charge on those interviews and told him nothing about who I preferred. I wanted to see if we would end up in agreement. We asked them the usual questions about their current employers, if they would be willing to wear a uniform (designed to weed out the ones who are just looking for a boyfriend) and if we liked them enough, they read a book to Megan (to test literacy) and asked them to iron one of Brian's shirts. Thankfully we both liked the same candidate best so I will follow up with the agency tomorrow to try to "reserve" her to negotiate a contract. I feel good about the initial choice and yet I know that if this one doesn't go through, there will be more people lining up next Sunday at the agency as well. I've also learned that most people don't keep their first housekeeper, so I have to keep that in the back of my head. The agency we are using offers "one free replacement within 6 months" if we are not happy with our first housekeeper. It's nice insurance but it sounds like I'm purchasing an extended warranty on my car!
I've had a few people from home ask why we would hire a live-in housekeeper rather than just a part-time one. It seems extreme to have a person living in your house if you could hire someone for a few hours a day or a couple days each week instead. When I explain it in terms of money, it quickly makes sense. The part-time helpers I have used in the past few weeks typically charge S$50 for a 4-hour shift (remember that $1 USD = $1.50 Sing dollars) It's not a bad rate but hardly a bargain compared to what I would pay a sitter back at home. If we hire a live-in housekeeper, the salary we pay her will be about S$400/month (roughly $275 USD). We also pay S$250 to the gov't for having a foreign worker but the housekeeper sees none of that. It's a little embarrassing to admit but Brian has mentioned that Emily makes more money each month with her per diem than our live-in housekeeper will earn in salary from us.
And then there's the human aspect to this business relationship. Several of the women I spoke with today have children of their own back at home. The grandmother is caring for the child while the mother works in Singapore and sends her money home. I will be haunted by a particular woman I interviewed who was trying her best not to cry (and failing) when I asked about the family she is working for now and her own family back home. Part of me wanted to hire her so badly because I figured that working for the Deans of Southlake would feel like a vacation compared to the demanding Chinese family she is currently working for, but at the same time, I didn't feel good about hiring someone emotionally unstable to live in our home. I felt awful for her. Our favorite candidate has a husband and 6 year-old child both living in the Philippines. She has worked for Chinese families for the past 4 years and when we asked why she was not renewing her contract with her current employer, she answered, "Because I would like one day off each month and they will not give it to me." After listening to these stories, I can at least feel good that regardless of how the business relationship turns out with our housekeeper, we will treat her respectfully and not forget that she is a human being. That has to count for something.
That's all for this Sunday night. I'm listening to Elizabeth cough in her bed and wondering if she will be the next one to check out the medical facilities in Singapore...
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