Now we have moved back. I have found, since living in this town, that there are some different words used here. In Semarang, a "pembantu" is a helper that actually lives in your home. We actually have a decent sized, L-shaped room upstairs in the back of our house for a helper to live in. You have to climb some steep stairs to get up there. There is also a bathroom outside that would be for a helper. We have found that you can hire a "pojokan" here which is more of what we really had in Salatiga. That is a person who comes during the day, as many days as you want to hire her.
This week I actually had two ladies show up at the door. One was younger than me I think and the other was a wrinkly older woman who was missing a bunch of teeth. The younger one spoke to me, asking if I wanted to hire a "pojokan" because the older lady wants a job. The older one was really hard to understand, so I am sure that is why the younger one came to speak for her. I graciously (I hope) said, "No, I'm not ready yet. Thank you." I felt bad saying "no", because I know she wants a job and probably needs it. But, I also don't really want to relinquish my housework to anyone right now.
Believe it or not, even though there is a lot to do, I feel like I don't really want another person in my house. Although it would be nice to have help with some of the house tasks that I do every day, freeing up my time for teaching and planning, I don't have any interest in the down-sides of having a "pembantu" or "pojokan". I don't have a lot of interest in training someone. That might in fact be a little easier in Semarang, because you probably can be more direct in your approach with people in this area. You don't have to be extra polite and beat around the bush, but you can be straight-forward with people. But, I just don't feel excited about that. I also don't want to go through the mess of finding out whether or not a person is honest and trustworthy. I have had plenty of experiences with dishonesty and I don't relish having to just try out a stranger and see if they are going to steal and cheat. I also don't really want to have to deal with the drama that having an employee can bring. Sometimes they have personal issues that you get drawn into as their employer, and that can be tough and annoying to deal with.
Although I can't say I'm excited about the training required (similar to the down-side mentioned above!), I really want my kids to learn some of these skills and I want them to participate in the house and the things that we need to do to keep things running. In the past they got an allowance and they had some chores. However, they would often forget or neglect their chores, but still wanted their allowance. So, for the past several months (much to their chagrin!), we have just scratched the allowance thing. Thanks to something on Facebook and adding some tweaking of my own, I'm trying something new this coming week. I don't know how it will work, but I am hopeful! The kids have to pick one chore to help me with. They don't get paid specifically for that one chore. But then, they can pick more chores to do during the week for pay. Then I also added a "bonus". If they don't do their chores, they don't get a bonus. If they do a passable job on their chore(s) and I have to remind them to do it they get a minimal bonus. But, if they do a good job on their chore(s) and I don't have to remind them (hound them!) then they will get a bigger bonus. I really hope this works! Casey and I already have to get at them every morning to get out the door by 6:30am. It is so hard in the mornings. Then I am also bugging them all day to get their online school assignments done. I don't want one more thing to get at them about! So, they can earn more if I don't have to do that. I really hope by making a lot of it optional, that they will be more joyful about what they do. I'd love it if they just dove in and helped of their own accord, but that doesn't happen very often. I do want my kids to learn these skills, so for that reason, I must swallow my dislike for training in the household chore training department. Wish us luck!! (P.S. I may have to find a chore I can entrust to Chase. He was asking me for a job too as the boys were picking out theirs! :))
