When the cat is away… there is more work to do March 10, 2009

One of the things I most dislike about Dr Woodrow being away is being the one who has to give the labourers loans. It’s a sad and vicious cycle: manual labourers get paid a pittance, much less than I can imagine anybody can live and support a family on – but the other side of the coin is that all those low wages still cost Grace Missions a lot, and if Dr Woodrow were to pay them much better, he would have to pay them double that in a few years anyway with the way the wage increases work. Anyhow, almost all the workers are continually borrowing moneyand it’s another fun part of my job recording all the loans and making sure the correct amounts gets subtracted at the end of the month. I think I have really messed up the giving of the loans though – I’m not supposed to give them more than they’ve already earned in the days they’ve worked so far this month, but I don’t know how to be hard and mean with people, and I just haven’t emotionally felt up to it. It seems they’re always asking me at awkward times! Like this morning, after a hot and sweaty and fruitless walk to DHL I got to the house craving just a few minutes to get my bearings, but it wasn’t to be! I can’t reason with someone when I am in that state. Getting our documents from DHL, as well as getting other things done in town, became a whole complicated affair which finally involved the driver dropping me off at the building where the DHL office is and me waiting for about an hour for them to re-open after lunch (some days I hate this 12h00 to 14h00 lunchtime! One can’t get things done!) – I figured I’d rather wait in air-conditioning than be at home a little while, only to go out in the heat later. So by about 15h00 I finally had the documents, had made copies for us and delivered them to the customs agent. Now I can only pray that the rest will go quickly and that we won’t have to pay for the containers just sitting there! I was really exhausted today without really having anything to show for it, but this evening I at least did some good work planning and feel more organised and less anxious.