One of the concepts I've struggled with the most both in preparation for our time here in China and even since our arrival is that of an "ayi"--a helper in your home who is paid to do cooking, cleaning, and help with childcare. Ayi's are a completely normal way of life here in most of Asia; and not just for the upper-class, but for all walks of life. Even ayi's have ayi's normally at work in their own homes while they are away working in other's during the day! But having come from our home in Dallas where I did all of an ayi's tasks on my own, the thought of paying to have someone else in my home and doing them for me was really an internal battle. When we lived in the Philippines for 5 months, we were convinced by other Westerners that hiring an ayi was a great opportunity for us to be able to interact with and build relationships with nationals, as well as a great chance to be able to serve someone by giving them work that we could easily afford and for which they had a great need (both there in the Philippines and now here in China we pay the equivalent of about $1.75 or $2/hour for an ayi).
So all that to explain how our requests seem to be answered! We have a woman, Ayi Wang, but we just call her Ayi (pronounced like "eye-ee") who has been coming to our apartment the last 3 weeks. She comes Monday, Wednesday and Friday for about 5 1/2 to 6 hours at a time. She does our laundry (which takes a lot longer than we're used to with the smaller washing machines and no dryers--which means everything has to be hung up to line dry) and cleans the apartment thoroughly (which is a HUGE chore--the filth that comes from the pollution is impossible to describe; I just wiped up some water off of the floor in the hallway that I saw ayi clean only hours ago, and the rag still came up gray from the layer of grime that covers everything! And that is no statement on her cleaning, but rather on how dirty everything gets here.) She also does dishes--which is also a time-consuming task considering there aren't dish washers. Another huge blessing is how she cooks dinner for us on the days that she comes, and even purchases the food she needs to use for the meal! We just give her the money every few weeks and have asked her to make different dishes for us to try (all Chinese food, of course--although she did make her version of Italian noodles last week, which was kind of like spaghetti with a Chinese flare!). We LOVE her cooking, and it is a huge help to me as I am gone to class each afternoon she is here, so I can come home from school around 4 and she has dinner ready to go so I don't have to think about it! Her cooking for us also gives us the freedom to have Chinese friends over for meals that are more familiar to their tastebuds--which we have scheduled for the first time this week! (Kevin has invited two real estate guys who work in the complex over for lunch who have done a ton to help us get things taken care of around the apartment. More on that later this week!)
Anyway, Ayi is a great cook, thorough cleaner, and most importantly, really kind-hearted and sweet to the kids! She has obviously never been around so many kids at once (as is the case for most Chinese with the one-child policy), but she doesn't seem to get stressed out by the chaos and interacts really well with the kids. Karis and Eli have been the slowest to warm up to her, I think just because they are intimidated by the language barrier, as she doesn't speak any English. But Hudson and Noah especially think she is great! Noah smiles when he sees her and she is really gracious in helping hold him when she sees me with hands full trying to do things like get everyone's lunch on the table. I'm not sure we will ever get to the point where I would feel good leaving her with all of the kids, as that is overwhelming for me even on some days!, but hope to have the freedom to leave her with one or two of them at a time somewhere down the road. And I was so encouraged last week to walk in and see Ayi sitting at the table with Karis and Eli, going through a children's book of Chinese words and practicing their pronunciation (as shown in the pic). Kevin and I feel great about her gentle spirit and how easy she is to be around--and we're just looking forward to being able to communicate with her more so that we can get to know her better!
We did have one funny moment that really threw me for a loop the second week she was with us. I figured I maybe needed to give her more to do during the day when I went into my underwear drawer that night and realized that she had folded and organized everything in it! I must admit, I was a little embarassed to know that there were no longer any secrets among us--even about my undergarments! I'm still trying to get used to having another woman in the house doing "my" jobs, but am so thankful and realize with the many differences how much it really is needed here in order for me to be able to do so many other things that I want and need to do throughout the day! And as I progress in my study of Mandarin, Ayi will be a great help to me in practicing what I am trying to learn in the classroom.
