How to run a [very] small business.... ahem.

10 March 2008

The last week has been a struggle, hunting the streets for a runaway, plus suffering a LOT from not having a computer. That will eventually pass... Found the kid, am working on that right now.

Dropped into the community, spent a day there, bought a few sweets and drinks for the kids at the little canteen Alice has opened up. Have mentioned that before, how she has been inspired by the dribble of visitors to DO something to improve her life... only she is illiterate, so adding up the bill is a challenge.

Lucas and Flavio [her kids] write every item down. At the end of the day it is tallied up for payment.

Using the same calculator, Lucas [8] arrives at a total. Flavio [12] checks it, and gets a second total. Dad pops up to fix things, and we have a third total. So step-by-step [item-by-item] I do it, and we have our fourth total!

The top total is three times the lowest! I offer to pay that, it's only a few bucks. They won't hear of it, as they may be robbing me. They want me to pay the bottom, but I won't hear of it, I may be robbing them.

I suggest adding the two middle totals, and dividing by two. The concept is way ahead of their time, I'm definitely speaking Chinese.

It's resolved logically and practically. They put a duplicate of every object on the list on the counter, in a line, put it's cost in coins alongside it, collect all the coins and zap! we have a total! OK, so it took half-an-hour... so who was in a hurry, anyway? You just have to love these people...

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