Stubborn school keeper

At the end of April, there was a cease of the contract of our school keeper and we would like to share the experience of working with this extraordinary person. (...)

(...) Tenzin Angbo is stubborn and reluctant school keeper unwilling to do anything for his employer for what he was asked for. His only activity that became the full-day duty was to supply the school with water. He looked after the water so well that every Sunday during the washing he felt so sad since we wasted all his water.

However, all other duties concerning the maintenance of our Sun school were far away reality for him and we were not able to threat him even with his signed contract. For example, while asking him to empty the toilet, he kept answering with a 'magic' word tomorrow almost for a week and spent his following days weaving a carpet below the school building. During this activity he kept himself busy drinking chang from early morning. So in the afternoon it was his wife Dolma who had to bring the water up to the school, having a half-year-old baby on her chest and the water tank on her back.

After couple of days of silence we again tried to ask Angbo for the help with the toilet. This time he advised us to employ somebody else from the village and pay for this extra.

Of course, we did not like this idea at all and tried to explain why we did not wasnt to pay another schoolkeeper since the one refused to carry out his duties.

Angbo came up with a strong objection: 'Up to now, not a single school keeper has ever done this and I don't understand why I should do this job. And on the top of that, I have got more than enough of my own work.'

And that brought our toilet - request to the end. The school keeper went on strike for couple of days. However, not for long as he needed eye drops for himself soon and other medical treatment for his wife and his children.

Thus the list of desired work-to-be -done remains to be done by us during non-school days. Emptying the toilets, bringing the bricks, fixing the steps that all will entertain us two during the following days.

Not only to mention negative experience with Angbo, he managed to find an half an hour in his busy diary to fix the stone floor in the corridor.

He mixed the soil and water (which had to be brought by us) and started the brick laying work. Ignoring our advice about adding the yak dung with a facial expression of a brick layer with a 20 years of experience, he finished the floor as he wanted. And following three weeks we choked up by  that dust that covered all school until we managed to sweep it all out.

Back to articles