About 3 times a day this lovely lady comes into my room and sweeps the floor, empties the bin and cheerfully says hello. She only speaks Vietnamese, apart from hello, yes and no, which makes having a conversation about working conditions, pay scale, annual increments, minimum wage, holiday pay, sick leave entitlements, unions and job satisfaction a little difficult. Today my AC stopped and when I showed her the remote she rushed off and came back to tell me through gesturing, that all the AC's were off along my side of the building. Throughout the day not only are these delightful ladies cleaning rooms, sweeping corridors they are cleaning the loos . Our loos are pristine.
The saddest part of all is that this lady starts work around 7:30 am and works well after 5:00pm, probably close to a 12 hr day for the princely sum of 2,500,000 Vietnamese Dong a month. By my calculations that's approximately $150 NZ. I’m earning close to that a day and I’m not well paid. In a country with no welfare, an abundant and willing pool of workers waiting for jobs and for this woman probably a dependant extended family at home, any job is a plus. Like any country Vietnam has its share of extremely wealthy, and it also has a huge number that make a pittance, but are so cheerful and helpful doing so.
1 comment:
How lovely to have such a clean room, but do you really make much of a mess?
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