Cleanliness

The bathrooms of the more affluent are probably cleaner than the maid's living room, if she had one in her house in the first place. With no running water at home, she might even have to take a bath in the river.

What kind of cleansers do you use? Do you use specialty cleansers for different jobs or just one general all-purpose cleanser? Some of the cleansers the maid might never had heard of. Some maids think that the more of a cleanser they use, the better is the cleaning job.

Generally, the standard of cleanliness in the rural areas is not acceptable to a city dweller who lives in a dust-free airconditioned flat or apartment. In rural areas the compound is difficult to keep spotlessly clean.

So what is one to do when one hires a young woman from the boondocks? It takes some effort to change her values and acquire new skills. To avoid this hassle, one should employ a domestic helper more used to the city and its standards. But then the city dweller has higher expectations. She wants more money and more time off. Certainly more than one day off a month!

This leads us to the often-asked question: "Who makes a better domestic helper, a newcomer or an experienced maid?" But this is another matter altogether. What do you say?