In fact, let's face it, many domestic helpers are smarter than their employers. I have one friend who is an actual rocket scientist (the official term is astrophysics lecturer).
He could design a spaceship to fly to the Omega Nebula in ten minutes, but could he iron a pleated skirt? Not in a million years.
His helper, on the other hand, can look after him, his family, herself, and her family of 16 in the Philippines—and could probably design a spaceship with a pleated engine housing, how cool is that?
The hidden brilliance of domestic helpers has long been celebrated in the guise of supermaid stories, such as the tales of Inday from last year.
Some of these stories are too good to stay secret, so say hello to Inday and Maribet and Teresita, the cheekiest supermaids on the circuit. Inday is verbose, Maribet is smart, Teresita is wild, and their stories range from pure humour to a bittersweet recognition of how hard a helper's life can be. Here are some of my favourites.
Maribet comes back from holiday and finds that her employer has bandages on both ears.
"Sir, what happened?" she asks.
"I was doing my own ironing when the phone rang," he replies. "I accidentally answered the iron."
The employer's wife comes home early from work one day and finds Teresita kissing her handsome nephew.
"Is this what I pay you for?" the boss's wife shouts.
On their day off, domestic helpers Maribet and Teresita are eating their lunch at a table outdoors in a public area.
They swap lunchboxes and keep eating.
Maribet walks into the dining room to find that her employer's child has a banana in his ear and rice up his nose.
Teresita is talking to her employer, who is an old man.
Got stories about silly employers, cheeky helpers or tragicomic boss-helper situations? I've collected some and written some and put them up on a website. Click here to go to the Maribet Page where you can post more tales, or just read them and weep.
THERE'S A SIGN on Congressional Avenue in Manila saying "Parking for Costumers Only." This may be a mis-spelling of customer. But the Philippines is so full of colourfully dressed, theatrical people, that I prefer to think that it may actually mean what it says.
This week, we'll take a reading tour of one of the liveliest communities in Asia, courtesy of readers there.
Often, signposts in the Philippines conjure up intriguing visions. Consider the shoe store in Pangasinan which bears the slogan: "We Sell Imported Robber Shoes." One assumes these must be the sneakiest sort of sneakers.
Tourists from Europe may be intrigued to discover shops called Holland Hopia and Poland Hopia. Both sell Chinese food: a type of pastry called Hopia. The names are explained thus: Holland Hopia is run by a man named Ho and Poland Hopia is run by a man named Po.
Sometimes the signs are quite poignant. Reader Gunilla Edlund saw one at a ferry pier outside Davao, Southern Philippines, which said: Adults: 1 USD; Child: 50 cents; Cadavers: subject to negotiation.