HELP, I NEED SOMEBODY

I managed to solve most of the mosquito problem a few days ago. I discovered that the top windowpane in the bathroom was missing - I just thought that it was really clean. Also, there’s gecko that seems to live behind my curtains and he might also be helping to keep the mosquito population down. He can stay there and eat as many of the things as he likes unless he runs over me at night – then the arrangements over.

Maintenance came and fixed the broken window the same day, which sounds really efficient if you don’t know that there are normally about 20 maintenance guys sitting around doing nothing. If you asked the old joke of Thais “How many people does it take to change a light bulb” the answer’s “More than anywhere else”.

It’s not that they’re lazy, far from it, things are just organised differently here. For example, on my first day I bought a power board to plug my gizmos into. One person took the product from me and put it in a bag, a second took the money and passed it to a third who worked the till, while a fourth ran up the sale on the cash register. And that’s not unusual. There’s just more staff around and they socialise a lot more while they’re at work.

For those towards the bottom of the commercial scale, such as the small shop owners, work seems to be something that’s all encompassing but also social. By way of example, there’s a guy on campus that runs as small motorbike/pushbike repair shop. He’s open 7 days a week for more than 12 hours a day. But he’s not working for 12 hours, he’s there for 12 hours. If he has 12 hours worth of work to do, then he’ll do it, but he doesn’t go chasing it. In the intervening time he’s got friends around, or other shop owners, who sit and chew the fat. The conversations seem to be the whole point of going to work, and that’s what makes the 7 days a week bearable. It’s a very different approach to work back home were the objective (mostly) seems to be get in, work hard, and be there a little as possible. It’s the time outside of work that’s the most important, social time. Given that we spend 5 out of 7 days at work ‘not socially’, I wonder who gets to spend more time with their friends?

HOURS AT WORK: Not as many as the Thai bike store owner