what do you do for a living?

Piassa







One of the first things that struck me when I arrived here was the massive amounts of people. People walking, people standing, people sitting, people talking, people staring. And people working. There seems to be a job – no matter the task – for almost everyone.

Take the job of being a guard for instance. A lot of decent sized stores, hotels, banks restaurants, etc. have at least one guard on duty. A general job description seems to be: watch parked cars, keep out the riffraff, assist driver with parking maneuvering, do pat downs (aka searches). It’s hardly required in some instances (take Abrico on Bole for instance) but it’s mostly a courtesy to the customer. And it creates a job where otherwise there wouldn’t be one. The general age of guards tends to be on the older side and being fairly self sufficient is better than naught. The average wage for a guard is probably about 100 Birr per month which works out to a measly $14 Canadian. Even with prices on the rise, it’s probably never covered the rent but it’s something.

At the school where I work, there are assistants and assistant’s assistants. My biggest frustration comes when it’s time to photocopy. Only the photocopy lady can touch the big green button. Even though I know what I want and, in fact, I’ve operated one of those machines several times in the past, I have to stay outside the invisible perimeter that separates this woman from machine.

The jobs become too defined (i.e., the photocopy lady only photocopies) and there’s no room for someone to move ‘up’ or even ‘over’ for that matter. Jobs are also very gender specific. You would never see a man cleaning a classroom. There are female guards but they’re only employed at places where a pat down is required and only they can touch the lady customers.

Ethiopia is a country lacking options. For the average person, they don’t have the luxury to even entertain the thought of “hm, perhaps I’ll change careers”. Day in, day out they do the same mindless job. They’re stuck and I’m not even sure that if someone came along and offered them a challenging job with responsibility they would take it. It’s like they’ve been labeled by some hidden hand as “guard” and that’s all they know how to do, it’s all they can do. Being poor means you can’t afford to take risks. Until the time the government believes in the people enough to create a roomy economy, people will continue to walk. And stand. And sit. And talk. And stare. And work.