The Help: Circa 2013

I live in a strange place.  And I'm not talking about Georgia.  The street I live on is odd.  

This is my house.  It's a really nice house.

It's the same as every other house on the street.  Although some are a little bigger.  Most people work at the embassy. 

You see everyone leaving in the morning, and barbequing in their backyards, and playing at our fenced in playground at the end of the street.  There are about 16 houses on our street.

There is nothing else around our little well-developed modern complex.  So it's odd....because it feels like it got dropped out of nowhere (The Truman Show), into this rural part of the world with a small group of people who work and play together, and only see each other every day. 

(Our moving truck - this is what surrounds our house.)

And everyone is from 50's America.  The day I was moving in we had about 4 neighbors pop in at different times to see if they could get me vegetables while they were at the market, to bring us muffins, to ask if we could come by soon for coffee, and to bring us a casserole.  How nice can people be??  But it's a little eerie.  I keep looking around for the cameras.

And while I could spend a whole post dedicated to the similarities my neighborhood has to The Truman Show, what really has me "trippin'" is how much it reminds me of the movie "The Help." 

It's not that there is racism, or people being treated poorly at all, but everyone on the street has "help."  They all have nannies and drivers and housekeepers.  And what's strange about it, is the street has two groups and two cultures.  The Americans, and the Nannies/Housekeepers.  Mainly Nannies. 

The first day we were here, my mom and I put Cora in a stroller and decided to walk down the street.  As we walked we kept bumping in to women with children.  I thought, "how nice to meet our neighbors."  But none of them lived here - they just work here.  It was all the nannies out walking and playing with the children.  Most didn't speak English, so they just smiled at us and cooed over Cora, but I could feel there was an unspoken divide between us and them.  I'm sure they were wondering what I was doing walking my own child.

Since that first day, I have come to understand more their little world. I learned that there is a "head nanny" on the street that they all listen to and that is the big boss.  There is all kinds of categorizing going on within the nanny group, and lots and lots of gossip. 

It's fascinating.   I'm still not sure how comfortable I am with having my own "help", but I figure if I'm going to live here in Truman-Town and make it work....well...if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.   And you really can't beat the price.  With Delsa leaving next week, nanny interviews start today.