The Help

Another Foreign Service blog I read just wrote about her new guilty pleasure: domestic help. I figured this would be a good opportunity to explain the situation here in China, which is similar in some ways and different than others.

Domestic help is fairly common in China, among expats and even some Chinese families. Often middle-aged women with families of their own, 阿姨 or "ayis" can be hired on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. There are some people here at the Consulate who have ayis take care of their young children while both spouses are at work. Most people employ at least one to help with the cleaning duties, and oftentimes one ayi will clean a number of peoples' apartments within the same building. In the Asian region, ayis and domestic help are popular to have. At some posts in southeast Asia, I have heard from other officers that you're almost obligated to hire help, and not only a maid but also a cook, gardener, and driver. Thankfully, here in China just one is enough.

When I first joined the Foreign Service, I heard stories of officers abusing their "privilege" abroad when hiring domestic help. Because labor in non-Western countries is often very cheap, one can easily hire domestic help to do a whole bunch of tasks from the regular cleaning duties, to childcare, to menial tasks like dry cleaning and groceries. So naturally I was skeptical when I came to Shenyang and everyone encouraged me to hire an ayi. As someone who grew up folding her own laundry, washing her own dishes, and cleaning her own apartment, I have always thought that I could do fairly well on my own. But...

After the second weekend of cleaning my behemoth of an apartment, I decided I was going to cave in and hire an ayi. I had spent all of Saturday and half of Sunday just dusting, mopping, and vacuuming. I have an unnecessary three bedroom and three bath apartment, with an office, pantry, kitchen, dining room and living room. To be honest, it's pretty excessive for one person. On a regular basis, I don't even go into the "west wing" of my apartment except to use the water distiller in the laundry room. Needless to say, if I wanted to have any free time on the weekends and also have a clean apartment, I realized I was going to have to hire some help.

I found my ayi through an officer who was departing post and hired her on a weekly basis. For the equivalent of $200/month, she comes twice a week for a few hours. Originally, it was just cleaning: dusting, mopping, vacuuming, and bathrooms. But she asked for more work, so I had her start doing the linens on the bed and washing my clothes. In any other situation, I would never let someone wash my clothes... but she insists and I can't complain. I pay for all of the cleaning supplies, and she tells me when we're running low so I can give her money to purchase more. I'm not normally one to make big meals, but when I do she helps to clean the big dishes that I've left overnight to soak. As my Chinese has improved, I chit chat regularly with my ayi to make sure she's happy and doesn't have any problems. When she has questions or needs to take off, it's never a problem for me since I can certainly adjust. There have been a couple times where she's shrunk some of my clothes or broken kitchen items, but all in all it's been a blessing.

As I type this out, I realize that I must sound like a princess to most of you. Really, I'm not a very high-maintenance person. The availability of help in China makes it a luxury that I know will end once I leave post. In DC and most likely in Rome, domestic help will be too expensive and I'll be back to doing my own laundry and scrubbing my own floors. But until then, I plan to bask in the glory of a clean apartment every Monday and Friday afternoon. It's a really nice feeling to come home to and I am also helping the local economy in a (small but convenient) way.