As I mentioned in the previous post, our gardener has not come to work for the last three weeks. Well, on Monday he actually came to work and hour late. I told him he could work, but he would have to work an hour later. Unfortunately, the gardener does not speak any English, so this communication was done through the help of my work girl. She comes twice a week, and she is a huge help to us!
On a side note, anyone who knows me well knows that I did NOT want to have a work girl here. However, that is almost NOT an option. Most people, missionaries included, would wonder what is wrong with you for not having a work girl. On top of that labor is inexpensive here, there are so many things that require extra labor like the lack of a dryer and dishwasher, not being able to get some of the fast products for making meals (like spagetti sauce, frozen veggies, or box mixes), and the incredible amount of pollution that makes my table and floors black in just 24-48 hours. So I have a work girl, and she is such a huge help!
Anyways, back to my story. In this culture, it is more acceptable to deal with conflict through a third party. This is hard for us Americans who are used to dealing with things head on. I often feel like I am dealing with a bunch of tattling. That is how I felt when Lea, my work girl, told me that the gardener had called her a lier. Apparently, he claims that he came to the house last Monday to work. We all know he didn't because that was the afternoon Kris and I were burying our dog. So how would you deal with this? Obviously, in our culture, I would tell her to let it roll off her back, but she was offended that he called her a lier. Do I deal with him? And how do I do it in the most appropriately acceptable way? Do I need to go through a third party to deal with him? These are the common scenarios that make up daily life here.
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