Living in Bali has its advantages and one of them is not having to clean the house. Our pembantu (helper) Ana, from Java is a super lady and really gets on with her tasks. This morning she was on the kitchen floor grinding up stuff with a pestle and mortar, making pepes ikan again. I asked Ika what she thought of Ana. Surprisingly Ika said “She’s good, 80% of the time.” I asked what about the other 20% and Ika said that sometimes Ana won’t bend to her wishes. Recently Ika wanted to go to a friend’s house and cook Indonesian food.
She wanted Ana to accompany her and Ana didn’t want to go. Also Ana won’t clean the upstairs room when I’m there and asks Ika to run upstairs to get things for her. Its a case of being shy and Ika doesn’t like it. “I told her you won’t bite, but she still doesn’t want to go in the room.” she said.
I still reckon Ana is a good person and a decent pembantu. Maybe I should rock her world by putting on some Barry White and doing a strip tease in front of her.
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share             
|
G’Day Nick,
Geez mate, doing a striptease!. You want her to clean the house not run from it!!.
Javanese women always tend to critsise another and especially when it comes to pembantu’s. Candika is the same way with her pembantu’s. She says they are 60% good and the other 40%, useless. Women - go figure huh.
same thing with my sister’s pembantu. she won’t clean our room if Andy still read his book on the balcony. one funny experience to recall, one day before we left the house Andy gave her a 5 US dollars note. She looked at him bewildered and turned to me said ‘mrs, what’s this bapak gave me?’ we told her it’s her extra pocket monies and she can go to the bank to exchange to rupiah. She shook her head and said ‘this is not the monies i know and beside i never been to the bank in my whole life. we normally put our saving underneath our bed’. so we gave her the equivalent value of rupiah to her. she was very chuffed then.
Today’s pembantu has a mind of her own.
The thing about not going into the room while the ‘Mr’ is still in the room is more about a culture. It’s not acceptable in Javanese tradition to have a “Mr’ and pembantu in the bedroom at the same time. That’s why either Ana or any pembantu prefered to waited until the bedroom is clear. It may sounds odd, but that’s what it is. I’m a Javanese woman and had several pembantus over the years back in Indo.
Hope it helps. 
From what I saw of Ana a few months back you have a great worker there who’s good with Jevon as well.