Respecting Hard Work

I woke up this morning at the normal time and headed to the farm. Solomon came late and before he arrived, the workers broke out in a singing and dance party. I had so much fun with the workers today. It began to rain (the workers do not work in the rain, I was told tonight that it’s because most only have one pair of clothes so if they get wet on Tuesday then the rest of the week they have wet clothes). We headed inside to crack open the shells of peanuts and get the get the peanuts out. I ended up staying inside with about 20 workers for about 2 hours. I was so awesome just hang out with them as we worked. They are starting to open up to me (well, as much as they can through the one good English speaker). They were singing and having a great time. This is why I love to travel, you meet such interesting people and get insight into their lives.

One of the main reasons that I love farming is that working hard truly pays off and you get to see the fruits of your labor. Hard working is one of the characteristics that I value most in people. In Rwandan culture people have defined roles. For example if you are a truck driver, you would never help to load the truck. This observation was explained to the volunteers at our training in New York before coming to Rwanda. The example that was given was that for one of the homes, the person that did the concrete floors was admiring his work but also puzzled when one of the staff walked past. The staff person asked what the problem was and the person replied it’s a shame that no one installed the pipes in the flooring. It was not that worker's place to do the job of another or to check up on why it was not done. He had a job and carried it out.

I also witnessed an example of this. In Rwanda you show respect for someone when you shake their hand by placing your left hand by your elbow. Some of the farm workers and I were unloading pineapple plants at the farm while some of the counselors were sitting in the car. I couldn’t believe that they weren’t helping. It would have made the process much faster but that’s not their role. One of the counselors gets out of the car and is greeted by one of the workers in the way you do for someone you want to respect. That counselor then proceeded to tell us to work faster because he wanted to leave. This whole interaction was frustrating on many levels. How could the worker (who was working very hard) show respect for someone who was pushing him to work faster while he was just sitting there? In Rwandan society he was someone that the worker should show respect for. The counselor asked us to work faster again so I grabbed his hand and brought him over to where we were unloading and instructed him to work. He began to complain that he might get dirty.

I witnessed a house mother drop something. She was sitting next to one of the students and hit that person on the knee with the notebook in her hand. The student then leaned down to pick up the object. I asked one of the staff about this. This is very common they said. It's not the house mother's role, she has the kids to do it for her. I was also told that in the beginning, house mothers and counselors had the students do their laundry. It was explained to me that the kids are there so why should they do it was the attitude of the house mothers and counselors. It has gotten much better since the beginning.

Who should be respected and how do you show that? It’s something that I have been thinking about for a few days. Does respect come from where you were born or how you act? Most of the workers shake my hand in the respectful way because I’m their supervisor and from another place. I hope they also do this for the way I treat them and the relationship that we’ve created.