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A strange sales girl and vanishing water in 2011

Jan 03, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

For every minute you live in this world, you meet a person that causes you to reflect on just what makes up the human being. I happen to know the owner of Bakewell very well. I hope that if he reads this article, he will have a talk with a particular sales girl in the Roti Hut.
One day last month, after shopping at Nigel’s supermarket, I turned north into Albert Street and stopped for bread and cakes at the Roti Hut.
My bill came up to seven hundred and one dollar. I said to the cashier that I didn’t have a dollar in coin. In fact I didn’t have any coins and not even a twenty dollar bill. I indicated would be grateful if she can skip the dollar. She was vehement that the total was $701 and I must pay that amount.
I thought she was cruel but I took out a hundred dollar bill. She gave me back $95 in change – four twenty dollar notes and three five dollars in coins. She was short four dollars in coins. I said to her, “You have four dollars for me; since I couldn’t owe you one single cent, then why should you owe me four dollars?” She rudely said; “I don’t have any one dollar coins.”
I was livid because she was barefaced and unprincipled. Next in line was a member of the famous Mendonza mining family on Brickdam. He couldn’t believe his eyes but was laughing. It was a weird experience, an episode that you will seldom find in the world. In this life you meet all kinds of folks.
A dollar coin has no value in this country. If you walk through the Bourda Green you see them all over the ground. If you walk out of any GPL or GT&T outlet, you see them on the floor. But this girl wanted her dollar and demanded to have it. She reminds me of the fault inherent in human nature. It is alright to take but we seldom give. She couldn’t give me a dollar, but was prepared to happily take four dollars from me.
Yes, we meet all types in this world.
I was having a snack with three of my Kaieteur News colleagues in Peter’s Hall at the M&M snackette on Friday, December 30, when my wife called to say that some folks that we know very well in Hadfield Street, Wortmanville were desperately trying to get me. The City Council cleaners broke the pipe leading into their yard and no water was flowing into their homes despite several calls they made to GWI.
I reached the office of GWI around 14.00 hours. It was closed since 11.00 hours for the rest of the day.
A state monopoly that provides the essential service of water supply was closed after the morning session on a working day. Could we please in this country make sure that the police stations remain open after 11.00 hours everyday. Four families were affected. Why were they desperate? Because GWI only works from Monday to Friday.
There is no phone service of GWI for the public after 16.30 hours. If a monster truck breaks up the water line leading into your yard on a Friday afternoon, then God cannot help you until Monday. In this case the nightmare for these four Wortmanville families would last three days.
Remember GWI doesn’t work on Saturdays, then, New Year fell on Sunday so the Monday was the holiday.
If you don’t have GPL supplied electricity, you can borrow one of your neighbour’s generators, use a car battery or rush down to the store and buy a type of lamp that provides powerful light. So you can still function. How can you survive without water? If water is priceless then why does GWI cease to function after 16.30 hours?
A large truck crashes into an electricity poll, you can call GPL at 2264015/6 from Monday to Sunday, 24 hours each day. Not so with GWI.
When you write about how backward this country is, you got a cussing down from the government. They say that you are damaging your country’s image. But if in the 21st century, a vital element like water is withheld from citizens in an accident because the water company doesn’t function after 16.00 hours during the week and on weekends then surely we are talking about lack of civilization in such a country.
During the month of December 2011, GWI proudly announced that it cut off 12,000 subscribers in Region Four who failed to pay.

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