Apr16 Written by:Kayle
4/16/2009 12:14 AM
We have a new gardener, Casper, the brother of our old gardener, who came directly out of the African bush and into our garden. Naison, a WONDERFUL gardener, decided that he wanted to move on with his life and get into buying and selling, but he felt bad leaving us in a new house with no gardener. So he said that he would bring his brother onto the property and train him how to run the gardens. Naison went to his home village, couldn't find the brother he had in mind, so grabbed his younger brother, Casper, and said, “Pack your stuff, you're coming with me!” On that day, Casper's fate forever changed as he came to the big city of Bulawayo with bigger brother.
Though Naison taught Casper much of the outdoor responsibilities, I'm finding that Casper has yet to learn other parts of the job that perhaps comes when working in the city a bit. Since his English is not so great, I took Bonnie the maid with me to translate so that I could be sure he understood some instructions. First, never open the gate of the property to someone you don't know! Second, do not just wander into the house to tell me someone is at the gate (as this makes me feel really uncomfortable when he just comes in at random times.) If someone is at the gate, tell the maid who will come find me. Third, please do not stare into our windows every time you walk past the house. We feel like we have no privacy and are being watched at every moment. The average African stares a lot and doesn't seem to find it weird, awkward or rude. At first I thought I got stared at because I was white, but then I realized that staring is just something that people here do. So why not stare into the windows of the house to watch these curious American white people live their lives? Anyway, I think he understood these basic instructions and so far the staring has slowed down. Hopefully we won't have a problem with it anymore... :)
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