This Is Growth

I had to fire Boury, our office cleaning lady. In Wolof. It was more awkward than it should have been.

Boury went to Thies for over a month, instead of the ten days she told us she'd be gone, and her younger sister, who was supposed to take over cleaning duties in her absence, never showed up. Apparently little sis was sick. At the risk of sounding incredibly cold-hearted, I am skeptical. Here "sick" can mean malaria or diabetes. But more often than not, it means tired, maybe a little congested, and not really feeling like showing up for work.

Of course in Boury's absence we hired a new, and much improved, cleaning lady. When Boury returned from Thies, she was stunned that we had hired someone new, and told us that the new woman could work until the end of the month, at which point Boury would resume her duties. Oh no, I had to explain, it doesn't work like that. She did not show up for work for over a month, therefore she lost her job. Seems pretty reasonable, right?

Not according to Boury. She pleaded with us, and then refused to accept that she was getting fired. How could we do this to her? she asked. She's a friend, a member of Cruger's host family and a single mother with no other source of income. I recognize that the politics of the situation are tricky, and I certainly didn't revel in having to cut her loose. But we're not about to pay someone $40 a month--a pretty substantial amount of money here--to not clean our house. Again with the cold-heartedness. It was probably a mistake to hire someone from Cruger's family in the first place, but in a place like this where everyone's your cousin somehow, I guess the chances you'll have to fire a family member at some point are almost as great as the chances you'll marry one.

I felt for Boury, but I knew I had no other choice but to fire her. I surprised myself by actually doing it, though. Once I let the smoke clear and stepped back from the situation, I was actually pretty proud of how I had conducted myself. Firing someone can't ever be fun, but firing someone in your third language as a cultural outsider has to be as tough as anything George Clooney faced in Up in the Air. This kind of tricky cultural navigation is one of the of Peace Corps' brochure-touted personal challenges, which are supposed to make us better, stronger people. So, I guess that means that this is growth.