Sunday Stories

I was going to buy some fancy dishes and flatware. Other choice was hiring someone to paint my house. A high quality table saw, or a road bike for summer transport. Instead, i bought a ticket to Africa. Stupid work, making me take vacation. Will have to continue using the 3 mismatched plates and bowls, paint the house myself, hand saw everything (and rig my own jigs), and continue to bike to work on the same run-down mountain bike (hopefully a little better when i get back).

The French guy who manages Bussi Island tells me a story: he's running Bussi Island as a place to relax, and would like for the employees to relax too. He's tried: when the mid-afternoon sun comes out and the heat reaches its peak, he tells the gardner to take a break, come back in an hour. The guy disappears for the rest of the day. The next day, when the French guy asks what happened, the employee apologetically says, "Boss, i can't work with a break, i can't handle it, i need to only work from 6 - 7 straight." This lines up with something John told me, that Africans don't have the concept of vacation. Maybe i'm Ugandan at heart.