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Changing maids
In the days when Mrs. Jerret and I were both working in England, we would come home to all the daily household chores of laundry, cooking and cleaning before we could sit down and relax. I was always more keen on the sitting down and relaxing bit, while Mrs. Jerret insisted on all the jobs being done properly. I always thought that the ironing could be safely stored in a cupboard – just until the door would no longer close – and then do it all at once, or just iron what we needed each day. We both looked forward to returning to Mauritius and keeping house with the help of a little paid assistance. While we have been here, until recently, this has worked very well. Unfortunately, things have been very ‘topsy-turvy’ recently in the Jerret household. When your home becomes somebody else’s potential workplace and you are not sure who or if anyone will turn up tomorrow – then your whole life falls into disruption, disorganization and disharmony.
Well… It all started four months ago when our helper of long standing, could no longer continue working for us. Her husband had become ill and she was needed at home. This was a great pity, because she had been with us for several years and we had all become very used to each other. Marie had become a valuable support for all the family and had become a good friend. We all really missed her when she was gone. We realize now what a valuable asset she had been to the family and she was most appreciated, only after she had left. Finding a replacement for Marie has been a truly adventurous and, often comical, episode in our lives. There is obviously no shortage of people willing to come and do a ‘spot’ of cleaning but we have to be comfortable with them and, most importantly, we need to trust them in our home.
We tried several new versions of the old Marie, but we were often unimpressed. When you enter the marketplace, the product you are looking for often has a transparent wrapping, so you can be reasonably sure of what it is that you are getting. It may also carry useful advice such as ‘suitable for all ages’, or ‘best before 2008’. If it does not work, there is usually a guarantee of replacement. With other purchases, you can usually be fairly sure about what you are getting but, with maids, you have to ‘try it and see’.
Batteries not included</B>
Our first try should have carried a warning ‘batteries not included’. She smiled sweetly and said all the right things but there was a ‘physical motivation’ problem. As most cleaning jobs actually require bodily movements of a partly organized nature, she was clearly unsuited to the work. Another probationary maid seemed to be on ‘remote control’ but she had lost her connection. She would go down to the bottom of the garden to turn on a tap and that would be the last we saw of her for twenty minutes. She had to go when we found that she was liberating small items of cleaning and grooming products from our bathroom. A small bar of soap fell out of her knickers as she was going out of the door one day. I was particularly annoyed because I had myself obtained this soap from a very prestigious hotel only last year – as a souvenir you understand. Another trial maid must have been a mermaid in a previous life. Although we had warned her against wasting water, she would still turn on all the water taps she could find and then position herself at the end of a hose. As long as she was waving this hose around, usually over concrete, then at least she felt sure she was ‘at work’, and this served as a complete replacement for having to actually do anything else.
There were maids available, but unemployable. I did interview a very attractive young lady who may have been very suitable. All that bending and cleaning in a mini skirt may have been pleasantly distracting but, anyway, Mrs. Jerret thought it would be too distracting and was unhappy with this arrangement in the house. Similarly, a very cute ‘toy boy’, who wanted to help us in the garden, called at the back door. I know that, if Mrs. Jerret had seen him, she would have wanted to ‘give him a chance’ and see how he ‘measured up’. I redirected him to an elderly neighbour before it was too late.
Of course there are products which appear to be very reasonably priced until you find that the maintenance costs are very high. The accessories can cost more than the original article. One of our trial maids felt sure that we should buy her a mobile phone so she could notify us when she was unable to come to work. Even without the phone, she could manage a funeral and a bus breakdown most weeks. On the days that she managed to get to work, she could break more glasses and ornaments in three hours than the rest of the family can manage in one year. We did give her a phone and to our surprise, whenever we wished to communicate with her or ask her why she had not turned up - well – the phone was turned off. This same maid provided us with a detailed shopping list of expensive cleaning materials she would expect to find in the cupboard. There would have been enough ‘Mr. Muscle’ for a hundred hotel bedrooms…
After these false starts, we have eventually employed a real ‘gem’. We now seem to have found the person we were looking for. Sabina is settling in to a promising routine. She has a strong personality and has even managed to encourage Jasper and Juliette to tidy up their rooms (something I have never quite been able to do). Even the dog finds something important to do outside when she is in the house. I can hear laughing and joking in the kitchen now when Sabina and Jenny are working together. God is in his heaven and everything is well with the world.
However, there may be a little problem – isn’t that always the case? I am just a little concerned that this new partnership may challenge my peace of mind. I have noticed that I am now being asked to keep my shoes in a tidy line and always put the toilet seat cover down.
<B>Jules JERRET</B>
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