Oh dear lord god almighty, she is an angel.  Somebody call the Pope, I found a saint.  When I was interviewing people to clean the house, I interviewed a lovely Filipina (yes, that word is spelled with and F and is not a racial slur) who I would have hired right away if I hadn't already promised the job to someone else.  Then, a few weeks later, when I decided to go back to work to avoid utter insanity, I wrote to her right away to see if she was interested in taking care of Max.  And she had already accepted another full-time position.  She did, however, recommend her best friend, Jenny De Luna.

I met her and knew that I wanted to hire her immediately.  But I interviewed for a week anyway, just to be on the safe side.  After seeing five other people, it was clear.  She is 33, has been in Japan for six years working outside of the Embassy, and has a husband and two daughters (7 and 9) back in Manila.  This sounds rough but is very much the common story here.  Most of the domestic work force is from Manila and they are all women.  They leave their families behind to come here and make gobs more money than they ever could at home.  Much like Indian men who leave their families behind for the oil fields of the Middle East.

Most of the Filipinas here are subservient and very much of the "lower class" mentality, meaning that they just follow orders and don't think and are there to be sure that the kids don't get hurt or starve to death.  Jenny is extremely intelligent, funny, engaged, and she and Max have loads of fun together.  She takes him to fun places to do fun things, rather than just parking him out in the compound playground all day while she sits on the bench with the other nannies and the kids all just run wild.  They go to a community center called Nandemo (which in Japanese means "whatever"), where he plays with Japanese babies and goes to singing and dancing classes.  She takes him to museum shows and parties and all kinds of engaging stuff. 

She is sweet and smart and she loves Max.

When she first started, she just came right out and asked us "what should I call you?".  UNHEARD OF!  They all just say Sir and Madam.  We said call us Beth and Chris.  And she does.  When she gets here in the morning, she just pops in and we all hang out and she tells us what she's up to and we tell her what we're up to and, meanwhile, she's getting Max up to the table to eat the breakfast that I make every morning before I leave.  It means a lot to me that I make breakfast and then she gives it to him, totally seamlessly.  When we leave, he just waves goodbye from the table and keeps on talking to Jenny.

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