Where do you get a Housekeeper for $50 a day? Welcome to the wonderland of Los Angeles, the leading edge of the Third Worldization of America.
California can't get the Federal government to control the border so we console ourselves with inexpensive domestic help. Some friends, who have larger homes, pay $65, but that's in return for 10 hours of hard work just to get the job done every other week. My housekeeper comes weekly and the job is more pleasant.
In Los Angeles most restaurants have Valet Parking, efficient busboys, chefs, while even modest homes have gardeners, hand car wash detailers, housekeepers, cooks, nannies, and odd job workers. Most speak very little English. Even at a local French restaurant, Michel Richard's - the primary language for the entire staff is Spanish. Apart from Hugette, the owner, no one speaks more than a few words of French.
My nephews speak Spanish almost as well as I do - they learned from their Housekeeper and their Nanny. For Americans who are less clever, there are horrid little products like "Tell a Maid" which is a pad of pre-printed pages containing a long list of possible things which might need doing side-by-side in English and Spanish. Of course in that case you need to hire a more costly Housekeeper - one who can read.
Anytime you hire any service, like plumbing, roofing or anything really, you get people who speak little English or an Anglo guy who writes up your order while the actual work is done by a team of Spanish speakers.
Personally I prefer Australia. No one there can afford a Housekeeper and car washes are mechanical, but everyone is well paid and no one goes to the Emergency Room for their primary medical care. When in Rome.
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