Inspiration Found In Unsuspected Places

I really love meeting new people and getting to know them.
I love "connecting" with them.
I love to know someone's "story".
I love this job, not because I have discovered a secret passion and calling in the washing clothes field, but because I get to interact with people.
I get to work with people who I could easily walk by. I don't need to use my brain too much for this job, so I get the chance to focus on the people around me instead. People who don't pretend to be anything they're not. People who are straightforward.

Clarissa, from Peru, is the one who's caught my attention most. Maybe because she follows the Spanish work ethic rather than the rigid Swiss one, which suits me best. She doesn't get stuck up on details. If a sheet's not perfectly folded, it's fine. If I make a mistake, she extends grace to the ends of the earth, and helps me fix what I did wrong.

I laugh with her, to the point of getting tears of laughter. It's good.

We did something wrong today, tried to fix it, without the "mean" woman seeing us, we laughed at our lame attempts to fix the problem. I felt like I was being naughty, I felt like I was a kid again.

She speaks to me in broken French; every other word is Spanish, it's great. She's completely unorganised, maybe I recognise myself somewhere there. She's the most well intentioned person around. She's a pleasure to work with. It's appeasing to be in her company.
She studied in Peru to get a degree, but she told me that she couldn't use it here because she can't speak French well enough. But she wants to learn. In a few years, when her little girl will be older, she'll be able to take up her studies again.

I admire her. This job is a killer. You're up all day, doing all sorts of things that physically demand resistance. Your back aches. Your legs ache. Your arms ache. But she goes home to her kid and husband, is a mother, a wife and a friend to her entourage. Finds the energy there somewhere to be all that too.

I get home and am about to collapse. By 9:30 I'm in bed.

Her simplicity and dedication gave me a real apprecation of life. Of how genuinely spoilt I am to have the life I have. Of my parents for raising us kids, for putting up with us after long hours at work. Of her.

She's off on her holidays tomorrow. So I won't work with her before I finish my time there, but she's left a lasting impression. My thanks goes out to her. Hope I'll bump into her some time again...


My ears are currently seduced by: John Mayer - Room For Squares