Hiring help

(Originally written Sunday, August 24th)
Heather and I were talking yesterday or the day before. It feels as though we've been in Baku for a month or more - not because time is dragging by, but just because we feel so at home here. We've learned some basic Azeri and we're picking up more each day. Shopping in the markets and bazaars feels almost natural. Walking through our neighborhood, I think I say hi to more people than I did when I walked through the neighborhood we lived in in Lynnwood.
Some things that have happened since the last update. We had a meeting at school that included a chance to interview some potential drivers, nannies and housecleaners. We wanted a driver, simply because it will take us a while to get a car if we decide to go that route. I'm leaning towards not getting a car at all, though. There were only a few drivers to talk to. One was looking for something very close to school and decided to work with a group of single female teachers. The other had just bought a brand new Audi and was concerned about driving into our neighborhood (dirt roads with very big potholes). He was hoping for around 800 Manats (written 800 AZN) which is around $1000 per month. However, he knows a guy (there's lots of that here in Baku. Juan Tovar would fit in great!) He brought his nephew to our house. His nephew has a 3 year old Lada (a Russian car, very boxy like a Volvo, but pretty small. We'll get a picture). We negotiated with the nephew and our deal is this: Monday-Friday, he picks us up at our home at 7:30. He drops us off at school at about 7:45. Then, every day, we tell him what time to pick us up - it can change every day. Some days, we're done around 3:30, others not until after 5:00. We can even call during the day if we need to change the time. A couple of times per week, after he picks us up, he'll drive us to a market or bazaar. Then he waits while we do our shopping, then drives us home. One or two weekend days during the month, we will arrange to have him drive us if we want to go downtown, to the sea, etc. Then he'll drive us home when we want. If we need extra weekend days, we can set that up, but we'll pay him overtime. For all that, we're paying 300 AZN per month (about $360). Gas here is about $1.40 per gallon (.60 AZN/liter) - diesel is about $1.10 per gallon and most stuff runs on diesel. The only "drawback" with our driver is that he speaks about 30 words of English, while his uncle spoke fairly decent English. However, the uncle told us that about 4 years ago, he didn't speak English at all. He started driving for Americans, though, and studying on his own, and that's how he learned his English. So, that's his hope for his nephew. As we're driving, we point at things and say the English word, then he tells us in Azeri. He'll also ask how to say things. He's also practicing at home. He picked us up yesterday morning. When we walked out he had a huge grin and said very clearly "good morning." We have his uncle's phone number, and the plan is that anytime we try to explain something but can't get understood, we call the uncle and he translates for us. We've only done that once so far, though, and that was just the first day to confirm that we were going to contract with him (we took a test run to the market the day we met him, just to make sure he could drive and that the car would be comfortable enough.) Otherwise, we know our Azeri numbers through twenty and we know the words for home, school, market, etc. which gets us pretty far.
So, we got our driver and we're happy with him. The boys think he's really nice. He's actually a lot less aggressive than a lot of the other drivers we've ridden with or seen on the roads, which is very nice. I'd rather get there 3 minutes later than sit there with white knuckles the whole ride.
We had no intention of getting a nanny or housecleaner. However, our director and the director of instruction were talking about cleaning to give us a sense of what prices we might be looking for in negotiating with people. To have a cleaner come three days a week for 5-6 hours each time, they thought that between 250 and 350 AZN per month was reasonable. If there would be some nanny duties as well, then perhaps another 50 - 100. They both have women who come five days per week, who clean and do nannying, and they pay about 500 AZN per month. Heather and I looked at each other and thought "Hmmm..." So, we talked with a few women, found one who speaks excellent English (as well as perfect Azeri and Russian), and hired her. She'll come Monday, Wednesday and Friday at about 9:00 a.m. and stay until around 2:00 p.m. She'll clean, do laundry, iron our clothes (we line dry everything - there is no clothes dryer - they're pretty uncommon here). Additionally, we've arranged to have her cook a normal/common Azeri or Russian meal for us each Friday. She'll leave it in the fridge with heating instructions and the recipe. Then we can have it Friday or Saturday. For all that, we will pay her 300 AZN per month ($360 US) - that's about what we paid to have someone clean for us in Lynnwood twice each month for 4 hours at a time. If we need to, we can have her babysit the kids in the evenings for just a few manat each time.
That's our story of getting a driver and housekeeper.