Sunday, February 24, 2013

squeezed out


2.22.13

The warmest day of the year for a few minutes, seven articles of clothing removed, my arms look whiter than my hair, but cool winds prevail with a strong sun it’s time to fill out another application form for another school who most likely will not offer me a job and while I try not to sabotage my efforts-consciously or subconsciously-I will God willing be grateful, even more grateful if I wind up in Antalya.

Elizabeth and Martin keep a blog of their adventures and hadn’t had access to electricity for two days so they came to the restaurant. They were harassed for only ordering a cup of tea, one cup, so they could use the wi-fi.  Two weeks earlier we saw Martin in Prem Maya’s garden trying to connect and it prompted Laxman to change the password. 

What I didn’t know until I spoke with the young woman with clear blue eyes is the day before we saw them piggybacking the wi-fi they gave Maya a hundred rupee note for a forty rupee cup of tea and they didn’t receive their change back.

They were angry.

 Now, first, wi-fi is free to customers who purchase something, these people are rightly called the customers, regardless of what they purchase, whether it’s a ten rupee glass of hot water or food.  Second, the couple are volunteering and being newly married have a budget and are living quite cheaply.  The expenses accrued from using wi-fi are neglibile and if they're not plugged in, which is usually the case in the afternoon when there is no power, the only cost is the labor that produces the tea. 

So a forty rupee cup of milk tea is a forty rupee cup of milk tea and whether you are on top of a mountain or in a Starbucks in Hollywood, wi-fi is free if you purchase a product.  There is absolutely no grounds for overcharging because someone doesn’t give you more than you want, it is wrong, it is anti-karma, it is petty, some might call it theft, and really, last night I thought how can I stay here anymore. 

Before they left Elizabeth apologized to Maya for making her upset and Maya knew, she has a highly keened intuition and didn’t wish for me to speak with the woman, Maya knew what she did was wrong.  I trust it’s over because I don’t wish to see anyone treated unfairly here.  You’re poor, be thankful for what you got, you’re rich, be thankful, and really, keep your hands in your pockets and say please. 

2.23.13

Forbes says Detroit is the most miserable city in America and a story on Yahoo says Nepal is the eighth most miserable country in the world.  To boot I have applied for jobs also on that miserable country list and geez, it is really making me feel miserable.  Not even Annapurna and Lamjung are cheering me up.

And the worse thing is with everyone posting everything on the internet life just seems to be getting worse.  Even reading about the rich and famous I can see through the shallowness and they are just not attractive.

Ok, let’s make some kids laugh.  Where’s my bag of dried apricots and Malaysian hard candy that isn’t very good.   

Shipwreck the sun I am on your side

I spent an hour today filling out an application for a job teaching little wieners in Hong Kong and at the end I wasn’t able to submit the info because the website is not bloody infallible and I figured, shoot is this really meant to be, c'mon, a sabotage not of my doing?  Why was I not able to send it you’re telling me you sabotaged it.  I rarely see jobs that aren’t working with little kids in Hong Kong, a city that is anything but miserable. 

And I wait for the others, four that at least have let me know they got my info and are reviewing it.  I sent my cv and everything else to places in Korea and Japan and Taiwan and the wankers probably just moved it right into their virtual trash can, inconsiderate blah blahers. It's blatant age discrimination and they don't apologize for it.

A waxing gibbous burns bright through the filtered clouds this evening.  I moved the remaining wood that Laxman and Maya’s cousin Reet-che chopped a few days ago in the lower garden to the shed and Didi was begging, beseeching is perhaps a better word here, to help her clean the beds in four rooms.  ‘Tomorrow rain, bolu pani porto’ and the ladies right above, Kushi’s mother and Manab’s mother immediately start asking questions.  I hope it rains tomorrow but Maya doesn’t wish for this anymore even though the tap has been dry for two days and I am beginning to smell.  ‘I need people, not panni’.  A successful business here needs a lot more coming in and that might be one reason the unscrupulous become unscrupulous.  There’s a desperate and sad response to needing something bad enough to take advantage of others in order to get it.  It shouldn’t be that way but I let most of let it slide and I turn my fat cheek.  Guy let it slide because he believes he’s much richer than most around here, true, but not the landowners.  Though a parcel might be tied up in generations of family, selling a piece so everyone could have a better life is attainable, you want your kid to have an egg every morning and you know you can afford to do it but you don’t because you don’t know how to manage money, well, shit, your children are neglected and it’s no one’s fault but your own and there is too much dependency on the land and not on the people and they oughta do it.

2.24.13

Thank goodness a little rain has fallen.  The skies brighten now and my own suffering is self-inflicted.  Finding a job where everyone is half my age will keep me out of the picture.  #@%.  Not only that but I don’t have a decent shirt, a decent tie, no pants, no shoes, what the hell, Jack.  I have no one to blame but myself and a malevolent spirit.  #$@.  I need some physical pain. 


And so with a blustery day and the fatigue of a market that is squeezing me out, I read this Time story about health care in America and I got a pain in my stomach.  Thankfully, hopefully by tomorrow morning I will dispose the problem and I will be alright again but I am most grateful I haven’t had any serious trouble that would land me in a hospital, and thankfully not one in America. The overcharging of all things in healthcare is shameful. 

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