Worker Man Coming

I am learning that later and tomorrow are common by-words here. So is Worker Man Coming.
I have also learned not to expect anything good to happen when Worker Man comes, whether it's sooner or later. Bill thinks that most workers don't know how to fix anything. They just wear the uniform. I'm thinking he's probably right.

There are many workers. Workers everywhere who get paid very little. You see them in the morning and in the evening, dressed in their uniforms, most of them very young, lined up for the daily pep talk given to them by their superior worker. Usually that person is reading from a little book or piece of paper...something inspirational, I hope. Once I saw them singing. They look very serious, but yesterday, the girl who works at our front desk saw me and got so excited she broke out into smiles and waves. I've never seen that before.

I had a short list of items that needed to be taken care of in my apartment--a broken light bulb, the water cooler boils the water, and the kitchen sink doesn't have cold water. I asked the person in charge of communicating with the building management to have them fixed and she told me that a worker would be at my apartment after school to meet me, so I hurried home. He was there--Worker Man. He no speak English. Me no speak Chinese. It was quite a comedy. Finally Agent Girl came. She managed enough English to be useful. She says the water meter is broken (which one?). It turns out that there are three water meters: hot, cold, and recycled which is used for the bathroom. None of it is drinkable. We buy that. That's what is boiling in the water cooler. Agent girl says they will bring new water meters tomorrow. She will also buy a new water cooler and a new light bulb. That's good. As for the broken light bulb, the worker leaves and comes back with a ladder. Then he takes a good light bulb out of one lamp and replaces the broken one. It's now fixed! How about that? What next?

This was my first experience with Worker Man, as they are called. Jane's air conditioner didn't work, so she contacted management about it. They told her they would send a Worker Man right over. He came, looked at it, and said (in Chinese, I think she was making a deduction) "It's broken." Right! Apparently he is just the Advance Man. He doesn't even pretend to fix things. A half hour later Worker Man #2 arrives. He fiddles with something and it starts to work. That was good, because usually they don't know what's wrong so they tell you they'll replace it. They must fix toilets though because Jane says she has often seen worker men running around with little plungers in there hands.

Wednesday，September 17, 2008
No water again today…also no working water meter. Also, no shower this morning again. Actually, the “agent girl” says that if I buy more water, everything will be fine, but I can't get a new meter until later. She is trying her best to do a good job for me, and she is, bless her heart. She wrote an almost indecipherable note to explain the situation. I think I caught her drift. Unfortunately for me though, it was too late to buy water last night and they don't open until 9 or so in the morning. Josie, who has lived here a few years, says that if you bang hard on the door, someone will come because they live in the building. Maybe so. I only hope that it gets fixed and that I finally bought enough water.

On the bright side, I finally got to the fitness center after school and used my trial membership. Turns out the trial does not include, guess what? Water—as in swimming pool, which is one of the main things I wanted. So I paid 200 kwai to use the pool every time I go, swimming caps required. I haven't worn a cap since who knows when. I understand they are easy to find. Aside from the guaranteed hot water shower (twice—once before entering the pool and once after), another benefit of the fitness club is I can watch English language TV, mostly all news like CNN from England I guess. Most of the news right now is about the AIG bankruptcy and other financial woes. The other big news today was a bombing at the American Embassy in Yemen and the catastrophic poisoning of mostly Chinese babies by the formula makers. Thousand of babies are seriously ill and 3 have died.