Bibik

Habis dah rasanya cerita raya ni. Let's move on.

I have been lucky so far with bibik. In fact from the day I decided to have a maid, way back in 1993, bibik is the ONLY Indon maid that I have. She has been with us since then. She went back to Indonesia on 2 (1 year each time) occasions and always decided that she wasn’t going to come back to Malaysia. And yet due to the inability to make ends meet, she returned. The first time she came to Malaysia, Suwarti from Jawa Tengah (Jateng) left her kampung without the knowledge of her husband. Her husband was working in Jakarta which is like 700 KM from her kampung. He would come back to the village once in the blue moon, and between that there would be no mews. When she was left to take care of 5 sons, and when there was a chance for her to come to Malaysia, she boarded a ferry to Medan and then to Malaysia. She came through an agent and a lady took her in as their maid.

After 10 months of working for the lady, Puan J decided to take the early retirement option from her company. Her children were already growing up so she NO longer need a maid. Through her friend (who happenes to be hubby’s cousin) we got to know of this. We decided to take in Suwarti as our maid. She prooves to be a reliable maid, she will do the work without me having to say what need to be done. My daughters called her makcik and have NEVER refered to her as our maid. She is treated like one of the family. My youngest daughter is spoilt by her, she refers to Syia as her own daughter. This is because she took care of Syia since the day Syia was born. She "kendung" Syia (Indon style) when she was doing her work around the house. We had to keep one of her sarung when she went back home the first time. Syia was too small to tell. The second tine went home it was a period of 1 year. Her husband passed away when she was at home.

Tried many things to support the family, even sold off a piece of land for that purpose. In the end she decided to come back to Malaysia. This time around she didn’t contact us, she contacted Puan J again. Although Puan J has no necessity for a maid, she still took her in out of kindness of her heart. After 1 year, Puan J again asked us whether we want to have her again. After 2 years of no maid, we could survive, but Syia was always asking if she could come back, and we feel that we can afford to have her stay in with us again. So we obliged her. We took in Suwarti again.

I guessed she is so good, that my SIL (kak Maz ) was eyeing her to take care of her 3rd son’s child. Kak Maz mentioned it to me before, that if ever I decide that I no longer want to have a maid at home, to pass Suwarti to her son. I told her the reason why I still need to maintain a maid for the time being. I thought it had settled. But again when we were in Sungai Petani visiting the second SIL (Kak Fadz), Kak Maz’s eldest son mentioned to his sister-in-law to ask me for my maid. So I posted some questions to HM (Kak Maz’s the eldest son) to clarify why I need a maid still right now. I then told Kak Maz’s daughter-in-law to tell her how to get a maid. Their fear is whether they could get a good maid. You hear nasty things happened in the papers on how some maid just abandoned or kidnaped or injured the children. Getting someone they know and they can trust, would definitely be a plus point. They have also by the way treat my maid as part of our family. Some of them even give her duit raya.

Told her that I can recommend 2 reliable agents who so far I have seen have got good records. One is the one I am dealing with for Suwarti, the other one is the one PS (my colleague) is using. PS mother has diemntia, so need proper taken care of, so far she has got 3 maids over the period of 6 years. And they are all reliable. Getting a good maid is a gamble but, when there is a we need to get one. The other thing is when we a have a maid, we have them like part of our family, not like a maid. I have seen maids being treated like animals before, which we have no heart to do. We treat her like a family, she eats with us most of the time not seperately in the kitchen or only eat certain food reserved for her. She has the freedom to move and if she
wants to visit Puan J I will usually send and fetch her.

I have been blessed with my bibik so far. She has indicated recently that she wants to go home. Asked her whether she would want to come back, she said probably NOT, since her mak is old and cannot take care of her sons anymore. Do I have to look for another maid?