domestic life is hard.

I think I might have to fire my waterboy. I’ve been thinking this for several weeks now and have said it aloud a few times during work. I can’t figure out what his deal is, I mean besides the ‘not talking’ part of his personality which I’ve grown accustomed to. He is repeatedly struggling to complete his job adequately. I don’t ask for a lot, we only have 2 barrels in the house that he has to fill and I even bought 2 jugs for him to haul the water with so that he wouldn’t have to use my neighbor’s. I even started making his job easier a couple weeks ago and I put the barrels on the back porch each night before he comes so that when he arrives early he can just get started without having to wait for me to open up the house. This also means he technically has to carry the water a shorter distance because he doesn’t have to traipse through the house to the kitchen and bathroom. And I pay him $5US a week, which is a very good amount for the fact that he doesn’t even have to come every day but only 4 days a week. Lately his major flaw is that he doesn’t fill the jugs up after filling the barrels. This is a very basic task and just requires an additional trip to the well, but the kid keeps ducking away without completing it. Because we sometimes use extra water it’s helpful to have the 2 jugs full and on stand-by, plus sometimes the well is dirty in the morning and his refilling the barrels gets delayed so with the extra water on hand there’s a smaller chance that I won’t be able to flush my toilet or wash my breakfast dishes (although I still find myself out of water a couple days a week). I’m just losing my patience with this kid because I’ve told him repeatedly he must fill the jugs and then on Wednesday this week he tried to sneak off leaving them empty and I had to quickly shout after him – when confronted he lied to my face and said he was just closing the gate (not leaving) but that’s funny because he was on the OUTSIDE OF THE GATE so that sure looks like leaving to me! And today he managed to run off without filling them again. He’s not being truthful and I’m vexed.

There’s also been much drama inside my house with Nelly and she’s currently looking into getting a room somewhere else to live. It’s been a lot of things building up and the decision of asking her to move out was a hard one to make but it’s really the only option because I’ve given her ample chances to change and improve in clearly defined ways and she is blatantly resistant to making any changes. The main problems lie in communication, or more specifically her lack of. It’s not a cultural thing either, which is what I had it pinned as for many many weeks and was therefore trying desperately to 'bridge the gap', but rather a combination of immaturity and rudeness.

I was starting to think that I’m crazy and to blame for these problems revolving around my home but when I’ve discussed both situations at great length with my co-workers they agreed that something’s off and it’s not my fault. So if it’s not me, then it’s some sort of bad juju that’s enveloping my life in Liberia! Maybe starting fresh with no more Nelly in my house and hiring a new waterboy will turn things around. We shall see!