Compulsory hospitality
Feb. 15th, 2009 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mahnmutI'm back from Western Cape where we stayed on the Raka rock festival in Kambati near Swellendam. It was fun. It's never boring when ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
abomvubuso and airiefairie are around, anyway. ;-)
I don't like planes too much but I had to endure the flight back for a lack of more time for a long and interesting train voyage. I was tired when we got home but now I'm refreshed. I had a good amount of coffee, I had abundant dinner, I had a bath and I got laid, so I'm completely decomposed and in a total state of bliss. In your face,abomvubuso ! Not only you can feel the 'gezelligheid'! Ha!
But our sweet seclusion won't last very long. Just a few days after Karen's sister had left us to return back to Pretoria after a long 1 week stay at home (Pretoria is very close to Joburg, so WTF!), we'll have another unplanned visitor.
abomvubuso and airiefairie are around, anyway. ;-)I don't like planes too much but I had to endure the flight back for a lack of more time for a long and interesting train voyage. I was tired when we got home but now I'm refreshed. I had a good amount of coffee, I had abundant dinner, I had a bath and I got laid, so I'm completely decomposed and in a total state of bliss. In your face,
abomvubuso ! Not only you can feel the 'gezelligheid'! Ha!But our sweet seclusion won't last very long. Just a few days after Karen's sister had left us to return back to Pretoria after a long 1 week stay at home (Pretoria is very close to Joburg, so WTF!), we'll have another unplanned visitor.
Meet Fhulu, 59, from Mutale, Limpopo.
Effective from Monday, she'll stay at our home for an undetermined period. Here's the reason. A year and a half ago, she and her man moved from Limpopo (in the extreme north of the country) to Joburg to look for job after their son had emigrated to the US. He had been sending them some money but it was never enough so they decided to move to the big city because there's no job neither in their village nor in Thohoyandu. They were initially jobless and homeless for most of the time, sleeping in various poorhouses across town. Then Mashu, her husband, managed to get a job as a guard at a parking lot so he could take a loan for a small shack in Alexandra (the township where I operate). But two months ago, he had a stroke and he died. Now Fhulu is completely on her own, and I've been looking for proper options for her for weeks.
Last week, their shack became history. She couldn't pay the installments so the bailiff started a procedure to take over it. Which practically makes her homeless again. The social department wanted to move her to an institution in Soweto but I issued an objection. IMO she won't be able to get a job if she moves there, and who knows where it'll end. The objection was taken into consideration and I was given two months to find a solution for her, after which she'll have to move to Soweto, and out of my reach.
So I'm mainly having this task on my agenda, and it's on top of my list of priorities. There should be some way... As far as her accommodation is concerned, I know a poorhouse nearby in Alex, but I'm still reluctant to send her there. And I cannot afford to pay her a hotel for such a long period. So I was left with no other option but to take her at home... I was beginning to fear that Karen would start to get annoyed with all this because it's the third time we're taking someone home, and the last case was a 19 year old boy who ended up suddenly disappearing along with several of our belongings, as a form of gratitude. I guess he chose the easier way, but I cannot blame him. I didn't issue a complaint then but it remained as a lesson to us. So one might understand my concerns... After all, I know this woman only for 3-4 months or so.
But Karen was very understanding and actually she proposed that we hire Fhulufhedzani as our housemaid for some time. Thus we'll be paying her some amount while she stays at home, until I find her a job. Also this could earn me some delay from the department in case I have no results until April 15th.
She's a nice and very smart lady really. Despite everything which has happened to her, she's always warm and smiling. And though she's silent most of the time, I can sense how talkative she actually is... Only she speaks no other language but some strange dialect of tshiVenda that sounds very archaic, and only a few people from around Thohoyandu and the hills to the north could possibly understand, and also a little seSotho... and that makes it difficult to communicate. But we'll manage somehow. It's most important to find her a job ASAP. Meanwhile, we'll do our best to make her feel comfortable.
Effective from Monday, she'll stay at our home for an undetermined period. Here's the reason. A year and a half ago, she and her man moved from Limpopo (in the extreme north of the country) to Joburg to look for job after their son had emigrated to the US. He had been sending them some money but it was never enough so they decided to move to the big city because there's no job neither in their village nor in Thohoyandu. They were initially jobless and homeless for most of the time, sleeping in various poorhouses across town. Then Mashu, her husband, managed to get a job as a guard at a parking lot so he could take a loan for a small shack in Alexandra (the township where I operate). But two months ago, he had a stroke and he died. Now Fhulu is completely on her own, and I've been looking for proper options for her for weeks.
Last week, their shack became history. She couldn't pay the installments so the bailiff started a procedure to take over it. Which practically makes her homeless again. The social department wanted to move her to an institution in Soweto but I issued an objection. IMO she won't be able to get a job if she moves there, and who knows where it'll end. The objection was taken into consideration and I was given two months to find a solution for her, after which she'll have to move to Soweto, and out of my reach.
So I'm mainly having this task on my agenda, and it's on top of my list of priorities. There should be some way... As far as her accommodation is concerned, I know a poorhouse nearby in Alex, but I'm still reluctant to send her there. And I cannot afford to pay her a hotel for such a long period. So I was left with no other option but to take her at home... I was beginning to fear that Karen would start to get annoyed with all this because it's the third time we're taking someone home, and the last case was a 19 year old boy who ended up suddenly disappearing along with several of our belongings, as a form of gratitude. I guess he chose the easier way, but I cannot blame him. I didn't issue a complaint then but it remained as a lesson to us. So one might understand my concerns... After all, I know this woman only for 3-4 months or so.
But Karen was very understanding and actually she proposed that we hire Fhulufhedzani as our housemaid for some time. Thus we'll be paying her some amount while she stays at home, until I find her a job. Also this could earn me some delay from the department in case I have no results until April 15th.
She's a nice and very smart lady really. Despite everything which has happened to her, she's always warm and smiling. And though she's silent most of the time, I can sense how talkative she actually is... Only she speaks no other language but some strange dialect of tshiVenda that sounds very archaic, and only a few people from around Thohoyandu and the hills to the north could possibly understand, and also a little seSotho... and that makes it difficult to communicate. But we'll manage somehow. It's most important to find her a job ASAP. Meanwhile, we'll do our best to make her feel comfortable.
