Nanny Diaries, Part IV

A departure from the Stella stories as the Nanny Diaries are really to give you a full picture of what it means to have staff in general. Because it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Do not get me wrong, we absolutely could not live here without them, they are a fabric of our lives, they are integral to our daily routines, but it's simply just not all fun and games and glamor.

Let me introduce to you a new character: Sammy. Sammy was introduced to me by an acquaintance who has since left Ghana. She'd lived here for three years, and Sammy was her gardener. As he was live-in staff, he also served as much much more to their family. In any event, once my friend's family would leave Accra, the Canadian High Commission was going to stop renting that particular house, so the staff that came with the house, had to find new digs and new employment! When you have good staff who is good to you, you want to take care of them by way of ensuring they have income, etc. etc. etc. So, my friend started putting out the word about Sammy.

Now, you can see by the pictures of Orchid Gardens that there's not much of a garden to take care of, but we have some flower beds and a small green grass plot behind the house. The Orchid Gardens staff gardeners are truly incompetent, and I wanted a major overhaul AND a vegetable and herb garden to boot! So, in comes Sammy. A knowledgeable, youngish guy who is incredibly charming and humble and hard-working. He does his work with such a level of enthusiasm that you know that he truly loves what he is doing or at least loves his life enough to be happy doing whatever it is that he is doing.

My plan was that Sammy would get the garden up and running, and I'd pay him a flat fee for that, and then I'd have him come around for weekly maintenance. Everything was going well, and then he didn't show up one day -- which seemed odd. And he didn't show up the next day. I was going to call him when Ben, our driver, spots Sammy's brother, Albert, who Sammy had been bringing by the house as his assistant. We stop the car and talk to Albert who tells us that Sammy's wife has been sick and that's why he hasn't been by, but that Sammy had been planning to go by the house that afternoon. By the time we got home, Sammy had come and gone and there was a large broken terra cotta pot and a big pile of dirt in our driveway. Very ODD. I then got a call from Sammy, apologizing for the pot, explained what happened and then told me that his wife was sick, they had taken her to the clinic and he'd see me the next day.

Saturday AM, Sammy comes, does a couple of hours of work and tells me that the clinic said his wife had malaria. I was skeptical...I mean, legend has it that if you live past 5 years of age here (and 20% do not), you have built up a resistance to malaria and you don't get it. When I said this to Sammy, he explained to me that while that may be true if you grow up in Accra, if you are from the villages, there are local plants that "scare" away the mosquitoes and the villgers don't tend to get malaria. That was news to me! I mean it's when you go to the "bush" that the malaria medication we have been prescribed is supposed to be the most mandatory. In any event, his wife had been medicated and all was well, or would be. He said he'd see me Monday.

Monday morning came and I left the house to go do a bunch of things. I gave Ben, the driver, money for him to take Sammy out to buy garden things, etc. But while I was out, I got a call from Sammy saying that he was going to the hospital with his wife because she needed to be admitted and he wouldn't be able to come by that day. No problem.

However, I began to wonder. Not seriously wonder, but wonder nonetheless, if in fact, Sammy was going to turn out to be like the staff people you hear about always calling in sick to the ex-pats because the ex-pats will actually give them the day off, etc. etc. etc. (No Ghanaian employer would ever give staff the day off because they were sick! And if so, it would certainly come out of their pitiful paycheck!) I found that difficult to believe because I know who he worked for and she would never have kept him if he hadn't been good. But you do hear crazy stories all the time and you wonder when it's going to happen to you...

Tuesday AM I called Sammy to check in on his wife. Someone other than Sammy answered the phone, which I thought was odd. They said that Sammy had "gone inside" and that they would bring Sammy the phone and he would call me back. Immediately I thought that something very bad was going on. The man on the other end of the phone asked who I was and I told him, and I simply said that I was calling to check in on how Sammy's wife was doing. Within 10 minutes, Sammy called me to tell me that his wife had died the previous afternoon! While I was shocked by the news, I was also not completely surprised because of the earlier phone incident. And, then, of course, I felt insanely guilty for ever having doubted him. I told him I would go by the hospital later that day. I'm not sure what possessed me to say this. I barely know the man. And once I said it, I wasn't entirely sure what I would do once I got there.

Later on that morning, I saw a lady who had been quite friendly with Sammy's previous employer. When I told her the news, she said, "Wasn't Sammy's wife pregnant?" I had no idea, Sammy had never mentioned it!?? And then she had told me a story about how Sammy's wife had somehow been administered 10x the dose she should have gotten of quinine and as a result had gone temporarily blind. Quninine is one of the earliest anti-malarials. It is actually used in tonic water for the flavor and the British Colonialists in India paired it with gin to ward off the malaria...(so, if you ever need an excuse to have another G&T...). However, quinine in high doses can cause blindness...and in pregnant women can induce a miscarriage. Now, if you are pregnant and you have malaria that is resistant to other forms of treatment, you would give quinine to treat the malaria because the risk of the malaria harming the baby is greater than that of the quinine, but...not at 10x the dose!

That afternoon, Ben took me to the hospital to find Sammy. Public hospitals here are not anything like hospitals at home. Yes, there are buildings, but there's a lot of smallish buildings with the waiting rooms outside in the open air, and covered porches where people see nurses etc. There's always a ton of people milling around because you don't get appointments...it's first come first serve. So I go over to the mortuary, where the signpost on the door outlines the fee schedule which includes, bathing, embalming, storage (first three days are free if the person died at the hospital, not free if they came from outside), handling, and get this...an "inconvenience" fee! I'm looking at the numbers and while for us it would seem like nothing, for someone like Sammy who is making about $1/hour the numbers are astronomical...and since you can't collect the body until your hospital bill is paid in full, your "storage" fees can easily add up! All I can think at that point is: Thank God I slipped a $100 bill in my back pocket! Eventually I find Sammy...and about 20 family members.

Sammy is telling me that the Drs are insisting that a "post-mortem" be done so that they can identify the cause of death. Sammy doesn't want the autopsy because he can't afford it and he's not going to press legal charges, so it's useless. He's not pressing charges because he can't afford to. He can't afford to pay the lawyer's fees, he can't afford to miss all the days of work he would have to miss if he takes this to court, etc. etc. etc. At this point, he can't even afford the 3.5 million cedis ($375 or so) to transport the body to her family's village. I give him the $100, which seems so pitiful at this point, but he seems eternally grateful.

He walks me to my car and Ben greets him through the opened passenger side window. Sammy goes to open the door and I think he's going to get in the car to chat with Ben...but no...he's being gentlemanly and opening the door for me! We say good bye. And Ben and I sit there talking for a bit. I'm telling Ben everything. And Ben wants to know where the family's village is. So, we roll down the window and call Sammy over and then a whole conversation takes place in the local language. The family village is in Assin Faso, which is the region where Ben's family lives. Ben has a station-wagon-style taxi. I know Ben and I know what's going on.
He doesn't even have to ask. I give him the rest of the afternoon and next day off.

Can you imagine...offering to transport a dead body in your car for about 5 hours for a person you barely even know? Well, that's what had just happened. Of course, Ben can't afford the fuel for his car if he's not getting taxi fare, so I told Ben we'd pay his fuel costs...Why would Ben do this? I'm not totally sure. He's always incredibly helpful. He lost a baby after about a year, and basically sold all their family belongings in order to pay for her medical care. So, I think his heart really went out to Sammy.

So, that was Tuesday. I hope to see Ben tomorrow, Thursday. I didn't hear from him all day today. So, I'm not sure what happened...and don't think that it's straightforward! The body had not yet been released from the hospital. They were just awaiting the death certificate. However, bribes are ALWAYS involved and who knows how much of a bribe was being asked...
I am quite sure there will be a story...