Sumi our helper started to give me sign that she no longer happy working for us. She missed her home and family and later on we found out she also suffered from a cyst in her fallopian tube..endometriosis? But like most of Javanese people she chose to suffered silently and not telling me. She would just say..I'm not well.. until finally I took her to see the doctor.

Failing at offering her the treatment in KL and her yearning to go back home, we finally send her back to Jakarta, before her contract ended. She wanted to go home immediately and couldn't give a shit on how I would arrange her ticket, her permit and everything.

I was mad and frustrated and worried but having her wailing and huffing and all that tantrum while refusing treatment leaving me with no choice but sending her home straight away. Now I left with no maid....

Panic..panic..panic...

I contacted my mum to follow up the maids in Jakarta that we've been interviewed and strated with the process of sending her here. We were down to two candidates. And after a few phone calls for more questionaires we decided to hire Holifa. She's a 40 year old Javanese woman, her resume shown that she's been working for an expat family in Jakarta. She looks a bit naive and quite funny. She was looking forward for a new challenge and earn more by working overseas. She loves dogs, very good at cooking Indonesian meal (used to work in a warung/ food stall as well ), she seems to be the perfect candidates. The procedures took a while...

When I contacted her again she was out of reach. I have to send my mum's maid and driver to look for her on her rental home and found out she was contracted thypoid. So, my mum send her some money to get treatment at the clinic. She needs to get better.

Meanwhile in KL I started a new life as a domesticated housewife...

I cleaned, I cooked, I did the laundry, I picked up the kids, fed them, entertained them and check their homeworks, I took care of the dogs, cleaned dishes and even attempted to do ironing and at the end of the day I cried.....

The clothes that I washed was full of fluffs and lints, I took me one hour to iron my husband working shirt and the shirt crumpled again after half an hour, I ruined my favourite black top by accidently washing it in the tub the I used to soak the whites. In one week time I have five piles of bucketfull laundry.

My son Douglas and I started to suffer from allergic reaction from the accumulated dust, and I had to call the vaccum cleaner supplier to show me how to use the vacuum cleaner. I mop the kitchen floor right after cooking the meal for the kids, and found out the grimes that Sumi left, typical maid that would just doing a slapdash cleaning, and when i have to do it myself I have no choice but scrubbing the whole area cleaned...a certain satisfaction when I'm done.