Quarry Chronicles: Faith

When we were not dealing with Mbugua (or Lucy for Wahinya), wayward men of the road, Munyua, sly stackers or brokers, we were dealing with Faith.

She was our client, the boss lady. Quite the short statured lady. We were and still are friends and knew her quite well in a social setting. Professionally, we did not. After we closed the deal, it did not take us long to understand why she was sifted amongst the professional pool.  Her height fools many. But when we saw her in a hard hat, standing on the first floor concrete slab issuing orders to big burly men -6-foot-tall-with bellies her size. Men with deep voices.  Others with two wives and eight children- our perception changed.   

Faith was the procurement and logistics head. She was brutally efficient at her job. If you need anything done fast and excellent, she is the go to person.  She can be coy as well. I know you are reading this Faith. Enjoy. 

When Faith called, I often got a small headache. Phone conversations were devoid of any emotion and small talk, which I find courteous before stating any business. Ask about my family for goodness sake. Or how my morning is, whether or not I slept well. Or if I slept at all. Not Faith.

“Sasa Ken”

“Poa Faith”

“Uko Wapi?”

“Kwa Nini?” (Kenyans are strange people. Single most used punctuator of phone conversations)

“Material zimeisha. I can’t pay workers to sit under trees you know. Mmefika wapi na mawe?”

Small headache crystalizes

“Tunakuja…”

“Lini?”

“Tukifika”

Hangs up.

Calls 1 hours later

“Come with 200 bags of cement”

“Faith……”

“Yes?”

“Never Mind” ……cursing. Calls Lucy. "Lucy, sasa, Please nitumanie 200 bag of cement."

(You see my job was ops –Operations- and numbers. Paper pushing, invoices, deliveries, that stuff. Wahinya did the grunt work. Brokers, drivers, quarry scouting. He was quite exceptional at it being fluent in the local business dialect. Well except for the negotiations where I gladly stepped in since negotiation is my forte. Toot! Toot! But Wahinya being a straight shooter, I doubt he’d have been as patient with the kind of conversations I had with Faith. He tried. I shall not say more).

So, when we arrived with said materials, we found a huge heap of materials unused. I almost went berserk. Earlier, she had told us they were at a standstill for lack of materials. Much to our chagrin. When we complained, she asked us to put ourselves in her small shoes with a deadline to meet. We couldn’t fit in, obviously.

One day, she called. It was the morning after I had spent the night in the truck; in a dark and cold quarry. She asked, “sasa sitafanya kazi yangu juu nyenyu? Mawe iko wapi?”I lost them. My marbles I mean. I went nuts. Tired, hungry, dirty, I think I had some bedbugs on me from the truck. What would you have done? Tell her, “Babe, calm down, I will be there in a while. I am looking for a donkey to ferry some of the stones.” Try fitting in my big shoes.hehe

After listening intently to her, I curtly told her that these were not logistics of bread. We don’t just pick stones off shelves from Stone Supermarket Premises. Plans have to be made. Well I wasn’t as amicable as I am being here (in my head, I was thinking or fish mongering business where you can release the fish to swim downstream to you.). A lot of emotions (and words) have been edited from this conversation. Ironically, it was Wahinya who mediated.

We had to find a working a working arrangement. But before we did, we made sure to arrive at Voi before end of day, while there was still some light. As the work progressed, we’d often arrive whenever we’d arrive. Even at 2.00AM. Well that might not mean anything but to Faith and Jack (watch out for the next post), it meant waking up to count every single piece of stone. Wake me up today at that time to count and I assure you we’ll have words.

We had a round table and agreed on a working arrangement. We were all happy. We still are. Even after the whole job, we can afford a laugh with Faith.

But what is most interesting is how much further some individuals could go for the sake of their employer. You’d think they own the company. Some say companies are great because of the owner. I say, it is because of great employees that work exceptionally well, with some sense of ownership in what they do and in the brand that they represent. These are the guys that stand out, that rise in a short period of time to occupy the C- Suite.

She’s not much taller now, but she has bigger shoes. 

Ken

Photo source: givingspeaks.com