The Cleaner

Some people call them the janitors, some the maintenance executive, some the toilet buster ... for me they are known as the good old cleaners. In this office building, there are just two of them. A guy to clean the gents and a lady to clean the female toilet. Both in their twenties and very hardworking, toil everyday from dawn to dusk just to keep the toilets clean and serviceable. They make a stop every two hours, more efficient than those at McDonalds.

I found out recently both the cleaners are from Sarawak and actually married to each other. Sarawak is quite far from here but quite near if you are comparing it with Iraq. They have been away from home for almost a year now, leaving their two kids in the hands of others. They can hardly speak any English, so my conversation with them is like between a Chinese and a Russian, but the difference is you know they are not from the KGB. So with my little speck of conversational Malay ability, I actually managed to ask them when their off day is. " Off day? Have, in the year 2007, when we go home. " So their working hours is from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, holidays included. All these for about a thousand (S$) a month each. I wonder how many Singaporeans will work for this type of renumeration with no off days. Here people are complaining about 5 day work week, even the PM thinks we should not work so much. I think the average person here would rather die broke and unemployed than to work with conditions like that ... unless of course you are a towkay like me, work only two days and take the other 5 days to recover, super slack.

Even with that little pay, both were able to remit home as much as $5000 Ringgit (close to Sing$ $2000) a month combined. I asked them how they did that??!!! What about accomodation, food, entertainment, phone bills, pet food etc?? Accomodation he said, is free. How come? He then brought me up to the roof top of this office building and in the midst of all the monster air-con condensers, showed me a corner where they both live. His wife was bathing at that time using a rubber hose. They sleep on a thin mattress, cook and eat there. There are only two electrical appliances there, a rice cooker and a small tv. He spends only $30 a month, no smoking, no alcohol, no 4D and basically nothing extravagant, only the real basics of survival. A bag of rice to last the whole month and a pack of vegetable (costing about 50 cents) everyday. Lunch and dinner is homecooked at the rooftop with a seaview. If he feels like having a coffee, his wife would make for him. Even a drink at the hawker centre is considered wasteful.

Sometimes I find inspiration from people like that. People with single purpose in mind and are so focused in their goal that hardship is just a little inconvenience along the way. They have little education, no skills and no prospects .. just a simple ambition to make their lives a little better for themselves and their love ones in the future. I have seen people who are a thousand times more qualified than them but are always complaining about their work condition, about their office not posh enough, about their pay not high enough, about their holidays not long enough and basically not happy with anything. These people are grumpy and naggy and can put you to sleep once they start complaining.

I find it refreshing to learn from others once in a while, especially from people who are on the other side of your life, people with discipline and people who would sacrifice the present for a better future. They are the ones who can bring you back to earth in case you get carried away too far in your fantasy.