so far so good

with the new woman. She’s got a spunk I admire. She told me she’d spent 30 years arguing with her husband and working for nothing in a factory. Her children were grown, and her grandchildren were growing. She decided to do something for herself for a change. She set off on her own from her home (in a neighboring Balkan country) and landed in Anogeia, where she spent a year working for some kind of syndicate that recruited foreign workers. She picked up enough Greek, with the strong Cretan accent they have in Anogeia, to leave the syndicate and find domestic work, for the mother of a government minister, as it turned out. She goes back to her home in the neighboring Balkan country every once in a while, to see her children and grandchildren and presumbaly the husband she can’t be bothered to divorce, but she’s got a boyfriend here, and an apartment with a girlfriend. She seems happy.

I try to judge her on her own merits and not in comparison with her predecessor, but either way, I think she’s great. She’s nothing but smiles and enthusiasm with the buka, who returns the smiles and enthusiasm in equal measure. And with me, she’s all compliments and comraderie. She tells me I look nice when I’m dressed for work; she says I have a nice, gentle way with the buka. She makes an effort to ask how I am, to get to know me. But she’s here for a job. I’m cautious about getting too friendly too fast.