I have been ayi-less for a week. One whole week of laundry, dishes by hand, plentiful Chinese dust, toilet scrubbing (but no ironing... Mr Johnson has a healthy supply of already ironed dress shirts, so really why bother!)
In March I let me Ayi Z go. She spent six to seven hours a day wiping things down, but nothing really felt clean. It was clear that she was surprised when I said I wanted to try life without an ayi for a while. But she was taking a toll on the family as a whole. She overstayed her hours (Came Early. Left late. Swallowed up family time.) She just lingered, diligently wiping everything down, yet blindly missing sticky patches on the fridge handle. Scolding the kids about their Chinese characters. And told me they should be doing more. (Dance/piano/art lessons... Why didn't my girlies take any of those?) If we had been leaving this summer I could have held on to her until we left, but for two more years... not so much.
It was liberating.
I gave my old ayi a call. The one who worked for me our first three years here until her husband became ill. She signed on for afternoons. Scrubbed the walls. Vacuumed under things. Fixed loose buttons. Brought the sparkle back to the house. She argued with the landlord on our behalf, and helped negotiate the lowering of the rent. But, it turns out she wasn't all that in to it. She has part time jobs in the mornings and didn't want to swallow up the rest of her days ironing our school uniforms and scrubbing toilets. Last Monday she told me she would be done working on Friday.
Which brings me to the present. A week without an ayi. With a washing machine that looks as much like an American washer as an Easy Bake oven looks like an American oven. With a laundry situation that involves hanging clothes to dry on our balcony; and did I mention it rained a slow drippy rain all day yesterday? (For the purpose of full disclosure I must admit we do have a Chinese made dryer I use for sheets and towels and undies... but it is fierce, and has no variable settings, so its use is somewhat limited. It is also located on the upstairs balcony.)
To be honest, I haven't minded the extra chores. And to be fair, the whole family has chipped in. But today I snapped. Or rather the vacuum cleaner did. The whole wand part just snapped in half. So I have the actual vacuum portion, the hose and the small attachment for floors, just nothing to connect them. As you may imagine, not particularity convenient. So we may find ourselves in the market for a third vacuum in just over four years.
But I find myself fretting over an object most Chinese see as frivolous.
Chinese appliances for the home are minimal. In the kitchen all you need chopsticks and a cleaver, maybe a mortar and pestle for garlic. (I once gave Ayi G a garlic press, and she says that to this day whenever her husband presses garlic he mutters, "Xie Xie Jen!"). A broom and a mop, and some old fabric are plenty for cleaning. Our washing machine is considered luxurious because it has a hot water setting. (There is only a cold water supply, so hot water is heated in the machine, and makes a load on warm or hot run for nearly two hours!) But each time I watch the complex groundskeepers scrub out their family's meager wardrobe by hand, using cold water outside regardless of the season, I am reminded that a washing machine itself is a luxury.
When we bought our Chinese dryer off some repatriating friends our driver helped Mr Johnson carry it in the house. He was perplexed by it. And since we didn't, at the time, know the name for dryer, we resorted to defining it's purpose.
"So, if you put clothes in there in the morning they will be dry by the afternoon?" he queried.
"No. In about half an hour," Mr Johnson explained.
The driver shook his head in a combination of disbelief and amazement.
Westerns have a way to rush everything. Most of them take up space. Most of them consume resources. (Electricity for the dryer vs. Free to hang clothing to dry).
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After three interviews, I have found a new ayi who will start just before we head home for the holidays. She can iron Mr Johnson's shirts in our absence, and vacuum the Chinese dust, and supervise the workers who will tackle the bathroom and kitchen projects. She has experience. Speaks some English. And loves kids. I am optimistic.
