Corruption Abounds

Here's just one all-too-common scenario:

The chief, the leader of the "community" in this area of our city, demands that "his" people work on our camp. So, we pay the chief and his people to work. Actually, we pay them not to work. Here's how it works:

They show up and are given odd jobs that can't be too destructive -- painting the curbs black and white alternately, painting a stop sign on the pavement (ok, it was spelled "sotp" and was facing the wrong direction!) -- his guys are paid to do these things -- regularly. But that's not enough -- he wants them to be the plumbers, the electricians, etc. Training? Of course not. How hard can it be, after all?

So, they took 3 months to "renovate" a place that now needs more renovation than it did before! To get a real plumber on the camp requires that the plumber pay the chief and that our company pay the chief. And then the chief might still say "no!"

So, he's paid to work and he's paid NOT to work and ...

two guys are now in jail because

well, ... it went like this:

the trash truck was heading out of camp driving way too fast as I was walking down the main street in camp. I motioned him to slow it down!! He altered his speed. But first, he surged as he down shifted. This caused the stuff in the back of the truck to shift. A can of paint -- bright yellow -- came flying out of the back of the truck, hit the street, burst open and ... well ... painted the road!!! A full can of paint. Yellow. Good paint.

Long story, short version -- the reason the guys are in jail is that the paint was stolen from the camp. A search of the "trash" truck found DVD players, light fixtures, chairs, DSTV decoders, remote controls, more chairs, ...

And get this ... the source of the "trash" -- the chief's "workers" of course -- as they "work" in a vacant house.

So, he's paid to work
and creates a disaster!
He's paid to NOT work
and demands more pay!
So he robs us while his workers do the work they're there to really do --
spy on the qualified workers and report back to the chief so he can demand more pay and
rob houses they are trying to "work" in!!

What do we do about it?
We give the chief and his "workers" more work.

So, today --
in one house we told the chief's guys that we were noting all things that were in the house -- TV, decoder, DVD player, etc. If anything was missing -- he was responsible.

Then, we went to another house where contractors (trained workers, well ... we wouldn't hire them in the U.S. but they're more trained than the chief's guys) were ready to start a new project. Here's the pep talk they were given -- "If any of your workers sleep on the furniture, on the floor, anywhere in the house ... or if any of your workers eat anywhere in this house --- they will be thrown off of the camp. You can sleep in the car but not the house."
Sheesh -- and I thought the workers were there to ...

well ...

work!!!

It's been awhile!

Hello! Are you out there? I haven't gotten emails from many of you folks for awhile.

I haven't updated this due to: lack of time and technical difficulties with the blogger system. Now all is well with the tech part! Lack of time continues to be an issue!!

We're into the dry season -- hotter, but we can usually leave our umbrellas behind. Except two weeks ago when something that felt like a hurricane came through -- took out electricity, phone lines, burned some laptops and DVD players and Satellite receivers and transformers and ... made a lot of frustrated people more frustrated.

My laptop survived fine 'cuz when the storm hit I unplugged it. Jim's had problems -- it was back in his office and plugged into a surge protector so he thought it'd be fine. Well, the surge through the network cable line fried his network card, so ... trouble. All's well for him, now.

Jim's off golfing with a friend. I chose to sleep in. Yes, there's a golf course we can now go to with security arrangements. 'helps that it's the military course!! 'maybe (just maybe) it's a little safer. It's Sunday. We still don't have security clearance to go to any church. Too hard to protect us in a crowd and the church we'd want to go to is not in the "green zone" of safety!

I get so used to all of the versions of English around here that it takes me back when someone doesn't understand someone else. It's getting easier for us to understand every mutilated version of English. But, imagine a new guy who speaks Portuguese trying to interview a gal I sent him to see if she could be his maid. She speaks her tribal language and pidgeon English. So, in desperation, he emailed me something like "Sharon, Thanks you arrange maid interview. me talk maid but trouble have. She no understand. What do?"

'gotta run. Just got a call from a friend who's going away party was last night and he's on his way to his new location. He thinks he left his passport on the counter in his house. Always something to keep me hopping!