Today I went to a nearby hardware store and bought some plastic and duct tape. I used them to enclose the gate and bars that separate our apartment from the stairwell. As it was, any smoke or fumes that got into the stairwell came right up into our apartment, since the wrought-iron grillwork did nothing to slow it down.
I got a piece of black plastic, just like I have used several times at home, that was about 3 x 4 meters [10x13 feet] and a roll of local duct tape, and brought them back to the apartment. I then cut a piece to cover the side bars and taped it in place, then I cut another piece to cover the door, and taped it in place. It is not airtight, but it reduces airflow up the stairs and into our apartment by at least 99% I figure, and Susan is feeling much better.
And when I was at the hardware store, I noticed something again that I have seen over and over here. Stores here employ a lot more people than a similar store would at home. This was a large store by standards here, a few thousand square feet, plus the storage yards out back for rebar, pipe, tiles, and other such items. And when I went in, there was a greeter, young, probably mid-20s, just to direct people to the clerks who could help them.
And outside the store, they have two armed guards, even though the likelihood of anyone trying to rob a hardware store seems pretty remote. There are quite a few armed guards around, but there seems to be little rhyme or reason to which stores have them. Banks always have one, but so does the grocery store where we often shop, and a cell-phone outlet that I pass on the way to the grocery store, and a random assortment of other places. These men [and all that I have seen have been male] also help with traffic control and answer questions, but wearing bulletproof vests and uniforms, and carrying night-sticks and guns, there is no question that they are primarily guards.
I don't know what guard duty pays, but it looks like a very boring occupation.
I have concluded that this is just one more way that employment is provided for more people, just as all the service stations are full-service. You pull in, and they pump your gas, wash your windshield, and check your oil if you want. I don't know what the unemployment rate is here, but in the US a lot of these people would be unemployed.
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Young men in Ecuador are required to fulfill a one or two year (I don't recall which) stint in the military. Unless they buy their way out... that is a legitimate option. They become trained and suffer from, what I heard, hideous conditions. Most members I knew dreaded the obligation and did everything they could to get out of it... it also conflicts timewise with serving a mission and those who were in the military hardly ever served a mission.
ReplyDeleteWell, once out of the military they know how to use a weapon and make good guards. I suppose that the hardware store employs them for two purposes. One for protection. There would be a lot of attempts if there were no guards. Second, for the protection of the customers. Customers are more likely to frequent a safe store. There is reason to have them.