I run cheap courses within a NGO, two courses in fact, childcare & hospitality, Yesterday, a volunteer English teacher in our building from the Congo - himself unemployed brought his friend, whom he calls papa along to meet me/ Papa wants to do the cooking course, after a conversation, I found out that this man once worked in the American Embassy in Burundi as a head chef for quite some years..Now he is a car guard and it is wearing him down. It is a harsh job to a poor man in his 50’s He did not have the full fees which I wavered as he pulled out a sock from his bag, which was weighed down full of coins and spilt them on the floor to count, it took him a month to save this...it was a sight as you can imagine and had to leave the room to weep for a min or two. Just now I am going off to meet him to bring him to the production kitchens of the Food lovers market who welcome our trainees (bless them all and their staff) to start his practical training on the days he is not needed as a car guard (we need to be this flexible with most of our trainees due to their tough circumstances) He will be brought up to date with the theory of catering in class, get manuals which he smiled & smiled as he held it yesterday and flicked through....) as well an interview skills workshop, a professional CV, we will track him as we do all our trainees and keep that door open until they (he) is working. He will get a certificate (that was lost in the war) he will get a local reference so he can once again become the chef he was...The coins lie in piles of 1,2,5 rand neat little heaps on the office table still and cannot bear to touch them. I just needed to share this encounter that touched me so much yesterday. Now to go into our day and be grateful & positive to have men like around us - what heros.... Now is that not a heart warming story full of courage?
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 06:38:14 +0000
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