I think I can now write about what happened to our almost yaya. Our new yaya has arrived earlier today. The very first time Miya saw her, she asked to be carried by her new yaya. Yippi! That’s a good sign in my books. Just shows my daughter is already at ease with her. So anyway, let’s get back to the one that got away haha.
M, our almost yaya, was referred by my friend’s yaya. She’s from Samar and has two kids whose husband is working here in QC. My friend told me that the transpo money she sent for her yaya was 2thou and the salary is 3,500. So that’s what I also told M para di na magkumaparahan yung dalawa. When I called her and told her about it, she requested if I could send her 3thou instead. I said okay but the extra 1thou will be deducted on her first pay. She agreed. I was advised by my friend that the 2thou transport money is actually well over the actual fare going to Manila, she already has extra from that. It turned out M will be bringing her daughter to Manila to her husband so that she could study here. That’s what she told me in one of our conversations. Fine by me. I told her our yaya is leaving on the 16th of April and I only need her to be here by the 13th because I wanted their stay with us to overlap. She said she can be here in Manila as early as April 1, I said that’s okay with me but since our place is a little too small for 2 househelps, she’ll stay with my mother first. She agreed. We talked before the end of March and she asked me if I could send the money immediately because he 1st of April is a Sunday. And I did, I deposited the money on a Thursday which will give her enough time to get the money and buy her tickets. There were some problems in her getting the money so in the end, she was only able to travel to Manila on Monday, 2nd of April. So I told her my mother will meet with her on Tuesday. Before this, she started asking me why she needs to go to my mother, she was worried that my mom is very strict and matapang. I told her my mom is nothing like that and she has nothing to worry. When she arrived on Tuesday, she requested if she can be picked up the next day instead. I agreed to it because it was actually more favorable for my mother to pick her up on that day because she didn’t have work then. Then she asked if she can be picked up in Litex because she didn’t have any pamasahe, she said she brought her two kids to Manila and all the money I’ve sent her were used up. I told her my mother is not familiar with the area, can she be picked up in Philcoa instead. She said okay. Then before lunch time on Tuesday, she sent me a text message asking if she could borrow money because her family didn’t have money to buy rice, they will not eat anything because her husband has not received his pay yet. You can imagine me fuming mad at this time. But my husband calmly said to just agree with it because we’ve already paid money for her to get here. So fine, I agreed, but told her that instead of starting at my mother’s she will immediately work for us. I can’t send her there knowing that we already paid her, in essence, and she won’t really be doing anything aside from cooking and cleaning the house. She’ll be left on her own there just to look after the house. She was actually relieved because she was really worried to work for another house aside from ours. Anyway, the next day I received another text from her asking if she could start on the 15th instead. Kapal muks! I was really angry at this time I wanted to tell her I don’t want her to work for us anymore even if we don’t have any yaya replacement. Good thing our first yaya prospect gave us a positive response so I had the chance to let M go. In my mind, I don’t care about the 3thou I spent on her already, I just don’t want her to work for us. We already have a rocky start and I didn’t want to take the chance. I’m sure every minor error she did will irk me from then on. So I told her off. I enumerated every little request she made that I agreed to. And then this! I told her she was just using me to be with her husband and that I won’t be getting her anymore and she should speak to B (my friend’s yaya) because I will get my money from her. I want her to worry about getting back my money. She should feel guilty about what she did. In the end, I think she realized her mistake and she said sorry to me. But her apologies didn’t change my mind. And you know what, I actually felt good about my decision. I didn’t want a headache of a yaya and M proved to be one even before she set foot in our house.