Indonesian maid (domestic worker) Siti Mukaromah is a nanny, cook, caregiver
to the elderly/sick and a housekeeper too.
She will have completed 4 years in Singapore by 04 Apr 10.
After that she will be available.
Background
Siti is from Malang in East Java, two hours from Surabaya. There her father
grows rice and some cash crops. She is the youngest of 5 children. She has a
secondary education (9 years). However, her spoken English is better than
one would expect.
She is a mother of an 8-year old daughter, but is divorced. She has custody
of her daughter now in her mother's care.
Job History
Before coming to work in Singapore, Siti had worked for about a year in a
stationery shop. However, most of the time she was a housewife, attending to
the needs of her nucleus family of 3.
- Her first job in Singapore was from Jun 04 until Jun 06. She worked for
a family of 10 comprising:
- Madam and husband
- Daughter and her husband (the couple's son-in-law)
- 1 Son and 2 unmarried daughters
- 1 Grandson aged 2 at the start and another 4 months before her contract
was due to expire
- Madam's 90-year old mother-in-law
Four months before Siti's contract expired Madam's daughter delivered her
second child, a girl.
The family live in a bungalow with 5 bedrooms. Besides keeping the house
clean, Siti also did the cooking, cleaning, laundry, care of the
grandchildren and later care of Granny - after she had a fall 1½
years into the contract and needed help walking and help with her personal
hygiene.
Siti turned down their offer to extend the contract, deciding to go home
instead.
-
In Apr 08 she came back to Singapore after an absence of some 2 years to
work for one Zhang Y, from China, married to a Singaporean. The couple have
two 2 children aged 6 and 7 at the start. Madam is working and Siti's duties
are childcare, cooking, laundry, general cleaning and marketing.
Personality
Siti is soft-spoken and speaks English quite well. She
is attentive and alert; neat and tidy in appearance and dress. She is
unassuming, polite and gentle.
Childcare
In the course of her work Siti has taken care of or
helped to take care of 4 children. The youngest was born 4 months before she
left. In other words, she took care of a newborn for 4 months. The other
three were 2, 6 and 7 at the start. In addition, Siti is a mother herself.
She took care of her own daughter for the first two years of her life until
she came to Singapore. Then again between 2006 and 2008. Siti is fond of
children and enjoys taking care of them, especially the younger ones,
including a newborn. She feels competent with a newborn.
Cooking
While in Indonesia she lived with her mother-in-law and shared cooking
duties with her. She considers her Indonesian cooking about average. In
Singapore although she did the cooking for two families over a period of 4
years, she thinks her cooking is just about acceptable.
