This morning, my maid arrives. She actually arrived last night but the office weren’t open so she stayed with the agency in their ‘flats’.
I’m looking forward to her arrival. I’m feeling optimistic that I have chosen a ‘good one’. It’s a huge risk taking a stranger into your home but a risk that those of us living in the sandpit have to take.
We can take a maid off the street (they usually have no residency or an illegal residency – ie. paid someone to have residency) or we can order from overseas.
Prices are as such:
A maid on the street will charge anything from 80/90kd-150kd for three days a week, a few hours a day.
A live in maid costs around 70-90kd a month and the initial visa process can cost anything from 400-1000kd.
A few years ago, we paid 350kd for our Ethiopian (the one that ran away, we caught and sent her packing with my jewellery- no, her luggage got searched and I got my jewelry back el7umdella)
Our last filipina cost 500kd. This filipina is costing 650kd.
It is expensive but cheaper in the long run and it means you have 24/7 help should you need it. It’s handy to have someone else on standby when a sandstorm creeps in.
Where can you find a maid? As a foreigner you can infact get a live-in maid. I’m not sure of the prices for foreigners. I know what we pay but I’m pretty sure foreigners get charged more. You can find maids offices in a few cities. There are a few in Hawalli and one in Fahaheel. Those are the two main areas that I know of. Trying to find office numbers proves difficult if you google search but I did find a list of numbers on Jeeran
