Record Retention

We’ve had a bit of a problem with record retention in the office of late. Nothing to do with files getting lost or going walkabout, but rather that our finance files are apparently quite tasty - if you happen to be a rodent at least! Evidence was first spotted a few weeks ago. I was away at the time, and thought I’d missed all the drama. But no, more was waiting for me on my return! The files below (or remains thereof) came from desk drawer of a colleague who sits at the other desk in my office. Admittedly they were in a drawer where she used to keep various snacks, so maybe the rodents had resorted to files once the snacks were removed – or maybe they couldn’t tell the difference?!!

On this discovery, which came on the back of other sightings, the offices were then liberally strewn with ‘dawa ya panya’ (rat ‘medicine’). It was commented on afterwards that doing so when there are a number of cats on the compound perhaps wasn’t such a good idea…… Anyway, by last Tuesday, a rather unpleasant pong began to permeate from beneath the sink in our kitchen area. Underneath was quite an assortment of torn up paper, tissues, remnants of groundnuts – and 3 dead, rather large mice. No other floor seems to have them. It must be something about those finance files!! We’ve since had another dawa fatality, and one caught by Kones, our inhouse now-dubbed ‘rat-catcher’. How many more there are remains to be seen over the coming days and weeks….

Combination of Words

Driving to church on Sunday morning, I was intrigued by what was written on back of the vehicle in front of me: “LOYALTY, HUSTLE & RESPECT”. The first and last words I understood, but ‘hustle’? How do these three go together? Loyalty and Respect are good values to live by, but hustle has lots of negative connotations. The online Merriam Webster dictionary has the following definitions:-

Transitive verb

1.

a. Jostle, Shove

b. To convey forcibly or hurriedly

c. To urge forward precipitately

2.

a. To obtain by energetic activity

b. To sell something to or obtain something from, by energetic and especially underhanded activity

c. To sell or promote energetically and aggressively

d. To lure less skillful players into competing against oneself at a gambling game

Intransitive verb

1. Show, Press

2. Hasten, Hurry

3.
a. To make strenuous efforts to obtain especially money or business

b. To obtain money by fraud or deception

c. To engage in prostitution

4. To play a game or sport in an alert, aggressive manner

Apart from the fact that this is evidence that working with a bunch of linguists for over 10 years has had a lasting effect on my view of words and readiness to discuss meanings (!), I still don’t know what they were trying to say. Any suggestions / insights welcome!

However, it struck me as funny, and perhaps an indication of what becomes ‘normal’,  that it was only afterwards that I noticed that the 2 guys in the back of the truck were in fact sitting, very comfortably it seemed, in armchairs!