Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Getting to Know People

Today I had the opportunity to share some quality time with couple of my guys.  It is weird, I spend almost 10 hours with them every day and we hardly get some time to really get to know each other.  The one thing that really caught me off guard today is the fact that sometimes those who are tough guys and give you problems almost every single second of your existence have a human side, have needs and stories to tell.  Thats the case of Alvaro, he's from Peru; he's been working for the company for almost 5 years, and he knows every trick available to play on a new supervisor like me.  So I have to be equally tough to him and during the last three weeks I've been on his tail very bad, but at the end in one or other way we manage to keep our communication line open. So, today we start talking about things and I got to know that he's got a child and he is paying for a private education (now, in latin america private education is the one thing that not everybody get to have) And according to what he says, thats the reason why he stays here regardless the extremely hard work and family time sacrifice.  He doesnt know how he's managed to put up with this life style all these years.  I see determination, a goal to be accomplished, a sacrificing father, so not everything is wrong about him, and thats a good thing to know.  Later on, like if my fate today was to get to know a bit more about the people that works with me, another guy, this time from Philippines, start asking me questions about me and my life and there we start a conversation.  He is a first timer in the company, and I learned that he had been unemployed for the last 10 years.  He is 34 and it was kind of sad that he wasnt liked by his family and girlfriend family because he didnt had a job.  He had been trying and trying to get a job and nothing of nothing, but 10 years? puff.... thats way to long time.  Now he says he got lucky and got this one, which is not very promising but at least he's got something, and his plans are to save some money to buy a piece of land and build his home, and afterwards marry his long time girlfriend.  Life can be hard to some and easy to others, yet everybody has their own stories, needs and human sides no matter how tough and rude they might be.  I learned today that when you get to know someones background you can understand better why he/she behaves or thinks like so.

4 comments:

4653989 said...

hi i'm nancy i just saw your profile and i think your an awesome person, i love jesus too. eversince i've met him things have been going great, even through the bad times.check out my blog...

Josue said...

Word up!!! Nice to meet you too sister in Christ.

Willer said...

Sweet! Josh is getting more readers.

Josue said...

Lol. Yes, you grown up college boy. =)