Lockdown moved from Level 4 to Level 3 today, with allowed exercise hours extended for almost the whole day 6am - 6pm. But I still found myself up early and out in the mist because Level 3 also means that most people can go back to work - so I needed to be back home by 8am to await the arrival of Howard, my weekly garden helper. I have been in touch with Howard through Lockdown, surreptitiously meeting him at the local Spar supermarket to hand him money from my car window, to help keep him going when he was not allowed to work. Today he said to me "May God bless you Mama. When you called on my phone I was thin and hungry, but you kept helping me so now I'm strong again". I don't know if he saw the tears as I turned away from him, because I felt so humbled.
@narayani Thanks Narayani. I don't know that I am a generous soul so much as just concerned or a sense of responsibility towards someone who provided a reliable service to me one day a week when I needed it, and then was prevented from earning any income due to lockdown. I had paid him in advance for the 3 weeks of lockdown we were supposed to have, but then when it extended I called him after a week and found he had run out of funds and food. Seems his other employers hadn't thought about paying him, so I phoned them and managed to get some money in for him to pay his rent (which he pronounces as lent) and buy food and airtime for his phone. It's just the right thing to do in the circumstances
@ludwigsdiana I am so glad you are amongst the many South African households who have paid people who normally work for you. I totally agree - I don't want anyone coming to work inside my house at the moment, but I was very happy to have Howard come back and work in the garden for me as that requires minimal interaction and even his meals and tea can be placed on the patio table for him to sit and eat without needing to come physically near to each other. I am totally on my own here now, so I must admit I have struggled to keep up with everything that needs doing in the garden, as well as keeping the house clean and the swimming pool. (even my kreepy crauly stopped working at the beginning of lockdown so I have been manually vacuuming the pool...)
