Vamoosed

*poof*

my maid has MIA!!

Short version:
She had asked for home leave for the funeral of her MIL in Philippines and failed to return after that.

Long version:
She was originally here to earn money to put her younger sister through school. And she had come to SG against the objections of her husband, who felt that she should remain home to care for her 2 year old son. Her husband's family is well off and could afford to put the boy through school.
In June, she found out that her younger sister would no longer be going to university as she had fallen pregnant out of wedlock. So, she lost her motivation to stay on here and faced increased pressure from her hubby to return home.

Anyway, it is really silly of her to vanish like that. Had she just told me she wanted to end her contract, I would have had to pay her airfare for her to return to Philippines. However, because she "disguised" it as a request for home leave, she had to pay the airfare herself, and whats more, she bought a round trip ticket! That cost her more than 1 months salary.
Doing the math, she has worked for me for about 8months plus. The 1st 6.5 months of salary are used to pay back the agent, so she had effectively only received 1.5 months of pay.. which.. was just enough to buy the air ticket back home!! So she went home with no money earned whatsoever! Man!

So now, we are going through the rigmarole of cancelling the work permit, maid levy, looking through maid bio-datas and interviewing maids. If all goes smoothly and we are able to find someone that meets our needs, we will have a new maid in by, say, the end of the month. And after that comes the process of training her, getting Sophie accustomed to her, etc etc.

Oh no.. I am SO going to be a submarine for so much longer!! =(