Things you don't see every day

As I waited for the staff to clean my hotel room, I took advantage of the moment to do some exploring. Life here is very different (in ways I'm sure I still don't fully appreciate) and so a moment or so spent people watching can be very revealing.

Outside the window at the end of the corridor there is evidence that this hotel, new enough in it's existence here, will not be alone for long. There is a constant hum of construction equipment and there are signs of buildings taking shape all around us. What now appears only as a pile of rubble will soon be another place for weary travellers to crash.

Look a bit closer, and see the young man, impeccably dressed, who is stooping in the garden, shears in hand, manicuring the lawn without the aid of a lawnmower. One or two blades at a time, it seems as though he is giving the grass a haircut. He is not alone; there is another who quietly passes by, with a broom or is it a dust mop in hand. He's dusting the marble ledges which define the borders of the patio. I wonder whether this is not a futile effort though, consdering the construction and dust that is everywhere, and the polution which is so present in the air that there seems to be a contant smog permeating almost every facet of the environment.

No task seems too menial, and yet I am sure that there is more here than meets the eye. The discerning traveller knows that there are any number of employees here, each having his or her own task to complete. Whether they are managers with responsibility for overseeing the entire project, or part of the sanitation staff whose primary responsibility is to keep the glass doors gleaming, when you live in a country that has so many people, the workforce seems to be endless, and the tasks to be completed can be attended to with pride and deliberate care, no matter how menial.