Thank You

Being a volunteer here, we don’t hear many thank yous.  We try to never let it bother us, and it truth, we have gotten used to it. So when we do receive a thank you, we are sometimes caught off guard.  I was yesterday. 

While I was walking on the road with another woman, we started talking about her husband, and how well he is doing.  He just finished the Police Academy last month and is now working as a police officer.  We talked about the dangers of working in Apia, since there was a falavelave of “gang fights” in which many people were injured, including 60 police officers. We talked about how much safer we are on Savaii, as nothing bad goes on here.

Then, the woman reminded me of last year when I helped her complete a job application for her husband.  I had forgotten all about it since I have helped several people with them and never heard anything.  She then walked me through the process of how he got employment and is now able to provide for the family, and it started with the help I gave with grammatical issues and typing. 

It was nice to get a thank you, but at the same time I feel a little bit of guilt for him having this job.  The husband works in Apia, and is able to come home 2-10 days a month (I think it is more on the lower side), which might be okay, except he has two young daughters aged one and two.  He will not be able to see them grow up as well from afar.  But that is true for most people for work.  You can make the choice of staying home and being with your families, or choosing to only see them on the weekends as we live too far to commute daily.  What a hard decision people have to make.