All the Africans I've seen do everything by hand. When I watched a team of builders constructing some glass boards, which were to be used as white boards, for Hunter's office, they did the cutting with a plain old hand saw, the connecting with a hammer and nails.
The other day, I watched Ma's gardener "mow" the lawn with a metal tool that's bent at the end like a hockey stick, and he swung that thing back and forth, whacking at the weeds for, I think I counted FIVE HOURS! No power tools.
When the handy man, Mtinda, came to fix the aerial/antenna for our TV, he literally sat outside and welded us a new one. Crazy!
These are the most hard working people I've ever seen. People who are fortunate enough to have employment during the day get up at 4:30 to begin the laundry for their own households. The kids are off to school at 7:00. Then they go help as maids for a full day's work at the home of someone who can afford it. By the time they get home during rush hour, it's already dark, and they begin to make dinner, then bed, then they do it all over again. I've smelled dinner from our south neighbor's house at like 9 p.m. I think they just learn to live off of less sleep.
Doesn't that make you appreciate the times you can kick back and relax or watch TV before going to bed? it does for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment