I had a similar situation, have a househelper who helps me with shopping, occasionally cooking, light housekeeping, plays with my 2 yr old for maybe an hour. she works 3-4 days per week. she is paid excessively well from what i have seen everyone else post. about 150Q per day. we went out of town and I didn't want to pay her for not working so I had her come 2 days a week to do some housekeeping. I didn't want to confuse things by paying for 2 weeks now and calling it vacation when she will expect it later too. Now my problem is I have decided that I want to let her go in December. She started in July so we will be right at the 6 months mark. I was thinking of giving her 2 weeks vacaction from Dec 15 - Dec 30th with pay and then 2 weeks bonus. Which equals basically a month of pay. does this sound like reasonable?and should I still get all of this in writing with her? I wanted to do everything at one time...vacation. bonus and termination? will that work?

will probably hire another person when we return at end of January for just morning housekeeping 3 days a week. we also have a maid 2 days a week as part of our rent.

Marina,____just wondering if you would share the name of your trainer, contact info and what he charges for personal training. sounds like a great workout - although tough. I workout at the Gimnasio regularly but am considering a trainer to push me a day or so a week. I used a personal trainer back home to"push" me harder than I did by myself at least once a week. Makes a huge difference.____You have gotten lots of good advice for why you might be getting repeat sickness. I am fantactical about soaking ALL my fruits and vegetable in wash even if they don't need to be. I also rinse in pure water - all that said it sounds like something got in your system and has decided to stay.__keep us posted on what happens.__Marian