Baji tales

We have two very delightful women who are responsible for cleaning the offices. We have four floors and each floor has two bathrooms, so it is a bit of a task. They only speak Kurdish and I only speak English. Generally we are able to communicate through hand gestures. Anyways, I have been remiss in telling you the baji (it is actually an honorific in Kurdish that means oldest sister/aunt) tales. My first day here I had no hot water. I found out later that it was because a) the baji unplugged the hot water heater and b) the baji broke the heating component. Thankfully our head of security Bob took pity on me and fixed the heating component. So, this morning I step into the bathroom after only 5 hours of sleep and all I get is cold water. That would wake you up, except for the part where the water was too cold, so I didn't actually get under the shower head. I had a sponge bath instead.

I walk out and tell Bob in broken Arabic that I had no hot water before I forgot to check that the hot water heater was plugged in. Of course Bob walks over to the hot water heater and plugs it in. We have a laugh-ha ha ha. I then went in search of tea. The baji strikes again. I think that maybe they feel they are saving electricity. Occasionally the air conditioning units are also turned off at the power source, and power strips are unplugged. I wish that they would choose to save water instead, because their notion of washing the floors is to take a bucket of water and throw it on the floor. Then they use a squeegee and chase it down the drainpipe. If they are cleaning the bathroom floor they take, for lack of a better word, the bum sprayer, and spray down the bathroom and walk away.

I think that may be enough baji tales for the day. Do not fear, there will be more.