The Water Boy

This is Izaquel, hero of the juicy story. Today was his first day working for us as our water boy.

Getting water isn't difficult, but it's a chore, and Laura and I figured we might as well help a student out by giving them a job. Izaquel is really awesome and I was happy to be able to employ him.

We had talked to Izaquel yesterday and told him to show up "whenever" this morning to go get water.

He was here at 6 a.m. prompt. We weren't even awake yet.

He filled our water, asked us if we needed anything else, and left, leaving twelve filled-to-the-brim water jugs in his wake.

"Well, that's that," I told Laura, "I'm washing my hair tonight!"

After school, Izaquel stopped by again. "I wonder what he wants?" we thought, "Maybe there's a problem?" We had checked the wage we were giving him with neighbors to make sure it's fair, but sometimes volunteers have problems with their employees asking for more and more from the 'rich' muzungus.

To put work here in perspective, though, Izaquel makes 200 meticais -- $6.50 -- a month hauling water for us, and that's already more than normal.

But no, when I walked out, Izaquel smiled and said "Good afternoon, Teacher! Just wanted to check if you have any empty bottles since this morning that you need filled!"
 
It's only the first day, but I think we made a good choice in our water boy. If he keeps this up, we'll give him a raise soon. It feels good to be able to reward good work.

And it also feels good to not have to pump water anymore!