It's common to hear of horror stories involving incompetent, abusive, or deviant maids, but luckily Yaya (nanny in Tagalog) was an excellent maid.
She was the central figure during my early childhood years and I'd say she played a big role in shaping the person I am today. Which is to say, she did a lot of things right.
Many maids take the easy way out when it comes to babysitting duties, and simply leave their charges in the care of the television (or its contemporary equivalent, the tablet). This turns the children into brainless zombies with the attention span of a chihuahua and the intellectual capability of a leg of lamb.
But not Yaya. She made the effort to engage me in conversations, using proper English and not those irritating goo-gaa baby languages. It helped that she had a computer science degree and was middle-aged so she was herself smart and mature enough to carry such a discussion through. She made sure I read books, and was also very strict in checking my homework, often sitting in front of me to watch while I did it.
The television was used to a certain extent, particularly in the evenings when she would be busy with cooking and other chores, but even then, she regulated the shows I could view. Most of the time it was either Hi-5 or Sesame Street, both very wholesome and educational programmes.
At playtime, she was there too, inventing new games out of old toys and facilitating free imagination. I had a cooking set which I loved very much and I would often pretend to cook dishes for her. Sometimes I used wooden blocks of various shapes and sizes to make stuff. This type of play was actively encouraged by her, and benefited my cognitive development greatly.
It wasn't all serious, of course. On the school bus ride home from kindergarten we would play Scissors-Paper-Stone or I-Spy. Oh my, such traditional games! Sometimes she got homesick so she'd put on some OPM (original Philippine music) and start dancing and singing along. I grew to like OPM because of her. Here's one song that was hot at that time.
Moving on to one of my favourite topics: FOOD. Boy could Yaya eat! That explained the fact that she was a little wide around the middle. And she was adventurous, enjoying local flavours like a native. Her signature dish as far as I was concerned was deep-fried ikan bilis (anchovies). So crispy and salty and delicious... She did it as well as any nasi lemak (rice with coconut milk) hawker.
Unlike many Filipinos, she could take spiciness. Indeed, she relished it! She taught me from a young age too, and we would heap spoonfuls of SingLong-brand sambal belacan onto our respective plates at dinnertime, much to the amazement of my parents and any guests alike. But sambal is actually pretty mild stuff, so sometimes when we wanted to challenge ourselves and ramp things up a notch, we would add chilli padi (bird's eye chilli) instead. I once ate seven bowls of chicken macaroni soup with chilli padi in a single lunchtime because it tasted so good and addictive, especially when I was being entertained at the same time by my favourite book at that time, a colourful maze book called Amaze-ing Journeys.
| Picture from Google Books |
I can survive a serving of Samyang 2x spicy noodles today and it's all thanks to her!
Eventually Yaya decided that she wanted to go home and build a house and family with the money she had saved while working here, so she left. I don't know where she is now or what she's doing, but one thing is clear: a part of her will always remain within me.
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