More on the maid situation

I know for people living back in the UK the idea of us having a maid, sounds a bit like "Upstairs Downstairs" but here it is so common to have one, no one bats an eyelid if you say you have one. To be fair, even at home we had someone come in to do cleaning and ironing and Caroline has used an au-pair before, so the concept is not so alien. We are in the process of looking for another maid after the nightmare of the last one. The main issue for us is having Milo looked after while we are at work. But it has been really great to have the house cleaned everyday, the wardrobe always full of ironed clothes, the garden watered (a necessity in this heat if you don't want everything to die pretty quickly) and the cars clean (yes, she cleaned the cars too).

Caroline has changed her hours for now so that Milo is not left too long, and it is ok, but she can't do that for ever and we both agree it would be so much easier if we had another maid. It will also mean we don't have to pay for kennels when we have trips home. So the search continues...

When you sponsor a maid here, you become her official employer and you have legal responsibilities towards her. As my visa is held in Dubai, then she falls under my sponsorship in Dubai. There are tons of forms to be typed (paid for to be in Arabic), photographs to be submitted, a medical (c.300 Dhs) to be conducted and a 2000 Dhs deposit to be paid. There is also an annual sponsorship fee of 5000 Dhs. The maid then gets a monthly salary, which in the enlightened country that we live in, is purely dependent on what country they come from. It ranges from something like 600 Dhs (c.£100) for an Indonesian to 2500 Dhs (c.£420) for a Filipino. So all in all, it is not a cheap exercise.

Milo is becoming a very expensive addition......