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dul Fitri means different things to different people. Some see the biggest Islamic holiday as an opportunity to visit their loved ones once a year.

Those who stay in Jakarta, however, have to wave goodbye to the luxury of simply adding their dirty socks to the heap of dirty laundry on the floor that is usually all cleaned and neatly folded by the following day as their housemaids return to their hometowns in a tradition called mudik.

Faced with the horror of having to wash their own dishes, some people move to hotels or frantically look for new domestic help.

The basic economic laws of supply and demand apply here. To meet the demand for housemaids during holidays, housemaid agencies recruit extra workers from outside the city as temporary housemaids, often locally referred to as infal.

The Mekar Jaya agency on Jl. Rasa Mulya, Senen, Central Jakarta, for example, brought more than 60 temporary housemaids to the capital since late July from places like Bandung and Cianjur, both in West Java, and Lampung, said staff member Atun.

Atun said that the agency charged an extra fee to its clients for temporary housemaids, because of limited supplies. “We charge a daily rate of Rp 80,000 [US$8.40] and Rp 1.5 million to Rp 1.6 million monthly,” she said. “Demand has always been high ahead of Idul Fitri, and this year we have a supply shortage.”

The short period of work and attractive salaries are things that lure people into working as temporary housemaids, according to Atun.

Suriyati, a 22-year-old housewife, for example, was willing to endure an exhausting five-hour car ride from her village in Ciwidey, West Java, to Jakarta, to work as a housemaid for two weeks. She said that it was her first time to come to Jakarta, and her first time to spend Idul Fitri apart from her 4-year-old twins and her husband, who works as a harvester on a plantation.

“It’s OK because my family agreed to my working in Jakarta during Idul Fitri,” she said. “But I’m going to miss my sons, who will start to act like brats.”

Rina, 20, who came to Jakarta with Suriyati to work as a temporary housemaid, said that she would use her wages to pay for the needs of her husband and her 4-year-old daughter. “I’ll definitely return to my village because I still have a family to attend to,” she said.

While temporary housemaids usually only work for between two and four weeks, the separation from their family members during the holiday season may still take a toll on them.

Tamarind Indra, 24, said that a single moment related to a temporary housemaid her family hired during Idul Fitri was forever etched in her memory. “She was mopping the floor when my family and I returned to our house after praying at a mosque. Seeing the sight of us in our prayer clothes, she broke down in tears because she suddenly remembered her son, whom she couldn’t spend the holiday with because she had to work to pay for his schooling.”

According to Atun, most temporary housemaids are willing to work far from their family members because of the high wages, and Jakartans do not seem to mind paying the extra money.

However, not all are willing to pay such a high price. Tamarind’s mother, Antini, 57, said that she stopped hiring temporary housemaids in 2011 because of the high price. “I paid Rp 75,000 per day for the services of a temporary housemaid in 2010. I can’t imagine how much I would have to pay now for such services,” Antini, who works as an architect, said. (han)