My first firing.

Well this week Ii have done the hardest job for me yet.  I fired one of my girls!

What a difficult thing to do!  

It has been an issue for a while and in the past she has had a few altercations with Sinta, and recently accused Sinta (unjustly) of stealing.  All of the others have also been finding it very difficult to work with her, and I decided that the business would flow better if she left.  Aggh!  What a decision!. 

So on Tuesday we closed up and in the afternoon I visited Novi and explained my reasoning and my decision.  She was quite accepting and unsurprised which implied to me that she understood why it had to happen.  I explained to her that some of her behaviours made it very difficult for her to work with others and I encouraged her (again) to try and improve these qualities so that in the future if she found work again she could work with others more smoothly, and also perhaps improve some of her damaged family relationships.

On Monday the “situation” developed to an actual physical altercation, although it didn't quite get violent (our landlord Anen apparently jumped through the opening in the wall to break them up.)  Therefore it wasn't suitable for her to return again as the others were quite unsettled and afraid,  so I didn't give her much warning I’m afraid.  To make up for that I gave her a small redundancy package.  I hope that sounds fair!  I suppose in Australia she could have been charged for false accusations and assault.  I dunno.   It just feels bad ending someone's employment.

Anyway she took it pretty well.

On a positive note, I think the vibe of the room will significantly improve, and the others will be more content…..

In my conversation with her, I let her know that I was not closing my door to her, and that if in the future she had a request she was welcome to come and ask me.  I encouraged her to consider working from home and offered her the option to purchase one of the electric machines sent over from Australia.

She was very interested in that possibility and yesterday she arrived to seal the deal.  She was just leaving the front yard with her chosen machine when I remembered to get a photo, so she graciously paused and posed for me.

More presents leads to more storage!!

How exciting it is when we receive a phone call from the local Rotary rep. letting us know the container will be unloaded.  Samuel and Bevan (a visitor) raced off to be there as the first boxes were removed.  Guess whose gear was right there at the door?  That's right, so for the first time it only took an hour  and they were back with a fully loaded Suzuki.

We received another half dozen machines, which we actually hope to share out to other organisations as we have enough in our sewing room at present.  Samuel was approached at the container by a woman who requested a machine or two. We hope she will be able to come and pick some up sometime.

We also received  some boxes filled with fabric, flannelette even a bunch of pre cut and hemmed flannelette inserts!! Wonderful!  As Samuel had the afternoon free(ish) he set up some plywood and cut some pieces with Bevans help, and then left Bevan to finish screwing them together.  He did a fine job and the 4 shelves looked huge!

We carried them into the sewing room this morning and by early afternoon they looked like this…

We now have floor space! Can you see it there?  And the fabric is easy to access as opposed to rummaging through cardboard boxes.  Two shelves have clothing neatly folded, one shelf has flannelette inserts for nappies and pads. And so many other shelves…. Don't you just love storage?

Many many thanks to Bevan and Samuel for giving their time to build these wonderful assets for Bellekria.

On a side note, when I went to take this picture they were busy measuring up a young girl and drafting a robe for a church ritual.  I think its a freebie which is fine with me.

  They are getting really good at drafting and designing.