It is so odd to say that we once had staff. Staff that cooked, cleaned, grocery shopped, ran our errands, fixed our things, did our gardening, washed our cars. Staff that we trusted and adored. Staff that we prayed for and worried about. Staff that over time became like family.
Ibu Ani was simply amazing. She is such a kind person, professional, discrete. She was our "pembantu" part house keeper, part house manager, part cook. And she managed this job with such a level of excellence that she when I told people about the quality of her work, they thought she might be a unicorn- just too good to actually exist!
When Ani started working for us, she shared that she cooked for her previous family, but they liked very simple (boring) meals. I quickly noticed that Ani was a VERY cook cook. I could give her a recipe and she would make it. She nailed about 98% of the recipes I gave her to try! And there were new recipes every single week. She cooked SO WELL.
But we had a few of her go-to recipes that we thought were just stellar. And we asked her to write them down for us. And we added to those recipes the ones that I gave her and Brian made her a cook book. He named it The Reluctant Chef because as much as we all raved about her cooking, she just didn't believe that she was THAT good. But she was! Brian even made an extra copy of the book for the family who was hiring her, so that they would know her skill level and the vast variety of foods she was able to make. Not just American & Indonesian but also Italian, Indian, vegetarian- man did we eat good with Ibu Ani in the kitchen!
It is such an honor to work for a US Embassy family, and to have a boss in who wore a military uniform actually elevated that honor. So it was wonderful that Brian just happened to wear his uniform- instead of his usual suit & tie- to work that very last day. Tomorrow we would actually be flying out!
The good-bye was a sad one. To see grown men cry with gratitude is so humbling. We were blessed to have this (mostly) amazing team of 3 (there were days we wanted to fire Pak Christian for sure- but typically that was due to the language barrier0 who enriched our quality of life here in Jakarta immensely.
The duty falls on the the employer to try their hardest to get your staff re-hired by an incoming family upon your departure. Ibu Ani was immediately hired by house #1 (we were house #6) and the other two stayed on for the family who moved into #6. Ani was sad to leave the house (She was there with another family for 4 years before we arrived, so she knew every corner in & out) but being Muslim, she did not wish to work with a family who had a dog living inside their home.
Happy to report that 10 months later, we are still in close contact with Ibu Ani and everyone is healthy & happy!
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