Have people always around to help you whenever you need it is a huge perk to living in Africa, although it doesn’t always come without frustration. Our driver for instance is not helpful when judging the price of items out on the street. He doesn’t try to help us get the local price. This is annoying because the foreigner price is at least double the real price.
Our maid asked for one of my son’s play phones (it is a real phone but our son decided to “wash” it in the toilet one day and it hasn’t worked since). We gave it to her explaining that it was broken. Today, she came and told us it was 20,000le to fix it and asked us for the money. Yes, that isn’t a lot of money but the fact of the matter is that she is not supposed to ask us for any items or money, per our landlord’s agreement with her. She is also very bad about following directions. We gave her 15,000le to buy more rope so we were able to hang our clothes to dry. We instructed her that she should not buy more than 5 yards of the rope. We weren’t sure of the price so we made sure we gave her enough money. She returned several hours later with all the money spent. She bought 15 yards of rope for 1,000le a yard. Everyone was speechless.
The gardener is amazing. He does anything and everything asked of him. He has honestly been the biggest help around the house. His English though is not strong so anything that I ask for typically is joined with a game of charades.
Having someone always around the help is something that I have had to get accustomed to, nevertheless it wasn’t that hard.
Our maid asked for one of my son’s play phones (it is a real phone but our son decided to “wash” it in the toilet one day and it hasn’t worked since). We gave it to her explaining that it was broken. Today, she came and told us it was 20,000le to fix it and asked us for the money. Yes, that isn’t a lot of money but the fact of the matter is that she is not supposed to ask us for any items or money, per our landlord’s agreement with her. She is also very bad about following directions. We gave her 15,000le to buy more rope so we were able to hang our clothes to dry. We instructed her that she should not buy more than 5 yards of the rope. We weren’t sure of the price so we made sure we gave her enough money. She returned several hours later with all the money spent. She bought 15 yards of rope for 1,000le a yard. Everyone was speechless.
The gardener is amazing. He does anything and everything asked of him. He has honestly been the biggest help around the house. His English though is not strong so anything that I ask for typically is joined with a game of charades.
Having someone always around the help is something that I have had to get accustomed to, nevertheless it wasn’t that hard.
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