National Shopping Holiday

So Monday (8th) the towns will be overrun with Country bumkins doing there Christmas shopping. Limerick, Dublin and all the major towns. Here, nothing. Not a dicky bird! As much as anyone I dislike the fact that the commerical Christmas starts so early but I also enjoy from about now on. There is a social buzz and the week/weekends are packed with shopping and meeting up with friends. I hear the credit crunch is worsening so it will be a more subdued this Christmas. No harm. Have a think about buying a goat or a cow for Bothar or giving SVP a few bob. Many Charities have suffered badly this last year with people struggling to readjust to new economic realities. I don't have a morgage, and I ain't got no kids so it was easy for me to swan off to Africa. But honestly the only possesion I miss is a washing machine. It is now in my top 5 of the best inventions ever.

Last weekend was busy so I am looking forward to a quiet one this weekend. Have got in the habit of falling asleep when I get home from work and then struggling to get to sleep at night. I have so many balls in the air at work that my mind refuses to quiet... Raw material data cleansing, Production scheduling and planning, Product design and costing, donor reports and budget applications. I worked late on Wednesday evening but the meeting I was working towards never happened. Still hasn't happened. The Kaizen project has lost momentum. The next management meeting can't come soon enough. For now I have decided to concentrate on what I'm good at, Data manipulation and information flow (it's not all glamour!).

One of the more interesting things I have been asked to help with is defining our policy for piecework e.g. 35 bob per bracelet made. I have read that “Civilized nations have moved away from paying by the piece.”. By law the workers have to make at least a basic wage. Some employees work themselves hard until they make thier target income for the month and then sit back and relax or don't bother showing up. Quality can vary according to how fast an employee works. Their is a high risk of overproduction. Just think what might happen if programmers got paid for the number of lines of code they wrote. The only previous experience I have of piece work is a summer spent footing turf, getting paid by the line. One day we hit a water logged area and my earnings halfed. I went home dejected. Trust and open communication between employees and employer seems to be the key to making piece work viable. Quite civilised.

I have gotten over my coffee addiction. In APC I was drinking maybe 4-5 cups a day. Here it has been mostly water and sprite. Soft drinks are extremely cheap here. 20 bob (20 cent) from the local shack, as long as you return the glass bottle. Sometimes I buy it down at the Cultural centre but have to remind Mercy (the waitress) that I am on staff rates. 'Mimi si Mtalii' (I'm not a tourist).

Lamu is booked. For a week at Christmas I WILL be a tourist. Christmas dinner will must likely be BBQ chicken by the pool. I believe ye are freezing your butts off at home. Ho, Ho, Ho.

M.

p.s. Keane has stepped down. I admire him for accepting he hasn't met his own high standards. At least his dogs will be happy of the company.

Cultural Learning (open to interpretation)
Alex, the Kaizen manager, out of the blue this morning walked into my work area and repeated three times "I am the champion!". I replied "Yes, you are!". He is a good lad in fairness.