Foreign maids in Macao

By Maggie,Zhao Xiaoxi

We often admire decision makers who draw up our developing blue print. We like to praise scientists who create enormous possibilities to improve our life. However, we seldom notice them - the people who are taking care of trivial and toilsome things for our daily life. They left their native places, working as maids in other people's home to earn a living.
What foreign maids have to confront everyday are not only the manual work with really unattractive payment, but also the tough living environment and the irresistible feeling of homesickness.
"It's very hard work, and busier than what I did before," says Wiwik Sulastri, an Indonesian maid. Such common complaint is understandable. What foreign maids have to deal with are endless housework chores. They have to toil from early morning to late at night when the employer's family finish dinner or even when the whole family go to bed. Preparing and cooking for every meal, cleaning house, washing dishes and clothes, taking care of the elderly and children... With
such trivial but really toilsome work, what they are paid seems nothing in comparison. According to a Vietnamese maid, who prefers to be called A Xiang (her Chinese name), the basic salary stipulated by a foreign maid agency is MOP2500 per month. "Although it is much lower than the Macao local
standard, but it is higher than I could earn in my country," A Xiang adds with satisfaction.
However, the long-hour toilsome work is not the whole story. Crowded rooms with shabby facilities represent a living environment for some of them. "Sharing a room with several foreign workers makes the life really tough," says Claudia
(no surname is given), a Filipino maid, who has the experience of sleeping on the top of a three-level bed, because of the limited space with other tenants. "At that time I wasn't permitted to live with the family I was working for, and in order to save money, I had to endure the really uncomfortable living environment." Although the situation has been much improved because she is now permitted to live with the employer's family, Claudia still feels sort of lonely and lack of freedom sometimes. "That's not my home of course! I am now depending on my boss for a living, so I should restrict my habits in every detail!" says Claudia.

Besides these physical difficulties, foreign maids also have to suffer some mental pressure caused by separating from their own family. Almost due to the same reason - to earn money for their family, these foreign maids decided to leave
their hometown and work in an unacquainted place. As in A Xiang's story, she has two children both studying in middle school, which requires quite a lot of money for tuition fees. It is not possible to provide a better environment for her children by working in her own country. Talking about the children, A Xiang can't help expressing her feeling of homesickness. "Macao is very beautiful and tidy, and I think I am so lucky to have a very nice employer. But I still feel lonely, because it's not my family, and I miss my children and husband very much."

Obviously, the effective prescription for curing homesickness is to go back home and reunite with their families. However, the chances for foreign maids to visit their families are quite limited. They have a vacation of about 10 days per year on
average, and may extend it to 15 days depending on different employers. "I really hope that I can stay home for a longer period of time, but I have to follow the arrangement made by my boss," says Claudia.
Perhaps most of us do not quite know about the life of foreign maids, nor do we even have the interest to know about it. However, they are a group of people living with us, providing service for us and Macao society as a whole. They are part of
Macao! So next time, when you are asking them to do something for you, please try to spend some time asking about their life and needs as well.