We're learning to do things as the day starts to cool off a bit, so we headed to the beach at 4:30 pm with Ms.C's new friend and her Mom. They brought along their Helper. That was a bit of an eye opener as to what life could be like.

About 1 in 5 households in Singapore have a Domestic Helper (a live in maid). They do the cooking, cleaning, shopping, basic child care, and shuttling of the kids to classes and lessons. We see them in the evenings with the kids at the playground, and always waiting for the school buses in the afternoon.

Yesterday as we walked the Helper trailed along behind making sure the kids wen't wandering off or dawdling too much. She played forever in the water with the big kids, which was amazing because then I only had to chase Ms.I into the waves every few minutes. It's a nice sandy beach with gentle waves, a bit of seaweed because it was high tide.

The kids loved playing with the Helper, but Ms.E who's now trying to figure out how things work asked at the end of the night, "Why did you bring another person? The Helper didn't come on our last date. Did you know sunset is around 7 pm all year at the equator? I had no idea.