Gringo In Peru

Another day another maid.

Yesterday Juli slept in, then told us she was leaving. Apparently she also demanded a full month’s pay (after working about two weeks).

The world of work doesn’t stop, so like that Lucho the maid broker found us a new maid.

Her name is Maria.

Contrary to popular belief maids come and go in most houses. There is a market, so many pick up and leave if they need a change.

What I’m told is it’s a Peruvian cultural and generational thing. 20 years ago when the economy and government of Peru was unstable people tended to stay at their jobs forever. If workers in general left their jobs (any job) it was considered almost suicidal. That has changed with this younger generation who (like younger Americans) see no company loyality.

The maid thing also brings about the social scientist in me.

With what we’ll call the maid class you have a an economically depressed majority who can make more money as maids than the other alternatives. There are always busses full of people coming in from the countryside with no education and no other option. The supply of maids is potentially endless and the homes that need them continue to grow along with Peru’s middle class. If these people were given better access to education who knows if they would continue to settle for domestic housework opportunities.

Then again, I’m looking at this from an American perspective where nobody would work full-time for $200 a month, even in this economy.

Ok, that’s enough thinking for today. Just enjoy the mindless maid drama.

We’ll see how long the new help lasts.

Today begins test week at the English factory. Yesterday I had a student fall asleep in class. I don’t think it was because of me, it happens.

I’ve dubbed this class my babysitting hour. Every student is 14-16 years old and see English class as a good chance to screw around with their friends.

I’ve had to break up a few kids getting a little slap happy during class. The boys in this class like to hit each other. These aren’t knock out blows, but one guy did hit one kid hard enough to knock off his glasses. To them its funny. I’m going to sound like a grouchy old teacher here, but its only funny until someone gets hurt.

We’ll see how this particular class does on its test. Then again, the grading system is weighted in such a way that even if they blow the written test, they have a chance of passing. Of course many will still fail, if they do I’ll get the classic line “But teacher my dad or mom is going to kill me.” That’s when I tell them that’s not my problem.

Teachers can be so heartless.

Honestly, most students can figure out their grades for themselves and know where they stand.

In other school news… students at V’s school won’t be in class until next week, but she still has to work. Since the students will end up missing almost three weeks of class the teachers are at school posting homework assignments to the web.

So far no other cases of H1N1 (formally known as swine flu) have been reported.

After two days of near empty classrooms my wife has been granted the last two days off. Students will not return to class until further notice. However, teachers have to go back to work for a few hours Monday.

As of today the student with the swine flu has not physically been in the school building for two weeks. Still, parents freaked out so class is canceled.

Since the teachers can’t work V and her friends have been going to movies, having coffee and otherwise just hanging out.

I’ve been working at the English factory. Next week is the last week of the cycle so the students are begging for better grades. Some have nothing to worry about, others will have their destinies revealed after the written test Tuesday.

The media hype is gone, but the threat remains.

The swine flu (or AH1N1) has arrived in Peru and it hit a little too close to home.

Last week, Vanessa’s school (and many others) were on semester break. A group of students in what we would call 11th grade took advantage of the holiday and went to the Dominican Republic. Turns out one of the 28 students on the trip caught the pig flu.

This girl did not go to school and all the people who went on the trip have been quarantined. The Peruvian health ministry says the girl is recovering.

Yesterday when news broke, V had just four students in class, today she has six. She says the parents are going crazy even though the trip left the Thursday before break and the student in question hasn’t stepped foot in the school since contracting the virus.

(I should take this time to mention schools here usually run pre-K thru High School. Usually the “upper grades” and “lower grades” are housed in different buildings on the same campus, with the pre-K and kinder separated from the school aged children.)

Honestly, I’m not freaked out and V seems pretty mellow about the whole thing. Although the WHO says the swine flu is creeping close to the 10,000 mark worldwide.

Last week my lovely wife was nice enough to pick me up from work since she had the week off.

On our way home one night we were stopped at the gate leading up to our house. (Many neighborhoods here have gates and security guards, its part of the non-trusting Peruvian culture.) There was a police escort and about six SUV’s with tinted windows that rolled by us.

Vanessa joked to the security guard “What is (Peruvian president) Alan Garcia here?”

Without blinking the watchman replied “Si.”

We found out from Lucho (who else, the maid trafficker and neighborhood gossip) that indeed Peruvian president Garcia was in our ‘hood. Turns out the President/General Manager of ATV (a Peruvian TV network) lives in our neighborhood. The president was visiting him. Crazy stuff.

Speaking of Lucho, we found out he has quite the side business as a maid “agent” for lack of a better work. If he places a maid in our neighborhood, he gets 20% of her first check.

It pays to profit off the eternally lazy.

Sorry for not posting for a while. The mood just hasn’t struck me, that’s all. I’m still working on (I know you don’t believe it) more posts about our trip to the jungle.

Anyways, another maid has come and gone. Helena, who has been featured in many pictures on this blog left. These maids quit in a way that make passive-aggressive midwesterners seem assertive.

Helena’s departure unfolded like this. She asked for two weeks off to visit her family in the countryside of Peru. Her hometown is a 15 hour busride from Lima. Of course, the powers that be in this house (not me) granted her request. After the two weeks were up, she never returned. There was one (from what I’m told) scratchy phone call from who knows where a week and a half after she was suppose to return telling the powers that be she would not be back.

This isn’t the first time the maid has left and never came back. Api told us a sob-story that her mom was sick and she had to go back to her hometown (again with the hometown) to take care of her. So she actually quit, only to show up in the neighborhood a week later. Turns out she’s now working on the other block in the same house as her sister.

Maybe its a cultural thing, but these maids just can’t say “I quit”. They have to make up a story and never come back. During my eight months here we’ve had the maid go on vacation, claim she needed child care for her son, leave to take care of a sick mother and leave for the weekend. In every case they’ve never returned. Crazy.

You would think this would make people revaluate their “need” for a maid, but it doesn’t. Instead, there is always another out of work girl from the countryside who needs a job and is willing to take the last maid’s place.

Thus, the world of maid drama turns.