A Ramadan moment

My air-conditioner was more of a fan rather than an air-con. No cold air was coming out as it probably was not properly connected to the compressor outside. So anyways, I asked the watchman to come look at it and after 2 days, one of his workers came knocking on my door in the morning. He took a look at the air-con and went outside. About midday, he came back and asked me to switch it on again. Bingo! Fixed.

He then said if there is anything else that needed fixing, I could call him anytime. Oh good! I pointed at the mini chandelier ceiling light that recently dislodged from the ceiling, now hanging precariously by a few wires 2.3 metres from where I'm sleeping, and asked if he could fix that too.

"Yes, no problem. I come back later."

Fantastic, I smiled and was going to see him to the door when he said, "Give me something."

I was shocked at his forthrightness to say the least.

"What? Give you something?"
"Yes, anything," and he said something that sounded like ".. boxes".
"You want boxes?" I asked. "Sorry, I cannot give you my boxes, they are my shelves now."

I had converted the boxes I shipped over to bookshelves the night before, to give me some time to figure out how to get the IKEA truck to my place.

"No,no, " he said, and came sentences I could not quite make out, but then I thought I heard the word "boxes" again.

He must want the boxes real bad. I suddenly remembered I have a spare box in the living room. I got him that box and handed it to him. He then said, "No no no, money."

Wow, these people tell it like it is.

"Money? You want money?"
"Yes, yes! Money. 10 Dirham, 20 Dirhams. No matter."

My face must have conveyed downright utter confusion.

"You don't know?" He asked.
"No..." I answered, eyes wide open and jaw slightly dropping.
"Ramadan now. You ask me do anything, give, I Muslim. Fasting"

Maybe he was saying "fasting" when I thought I heard "boxes".

"You happy give 10 dirhams, 20 dirhams, OK. You not happy?"
"Oh no, no.. I happy..."
"You don't know yes?'
"No..." Still looking confused.

"Ok, ok," he said smiling as he makes for the door, "you don't know OK." And he shuts the door after him.

I admit I have slow reaction. But coming from where I came from, it is extremely rare that someones asks for tips so blatantly. I was slightly intimidated when he suddenly asked me to give him something, I mean, I was alone in the flat with this guy. Yes, I am a paranoid Singaporean female. That said, he was smiling nicely throughout the whole episode, and now I felt a bit bad I did not give him anything. He was fixing the air-con outside in the heat in the middle of Ramadan without food and water after all.

I wondered if he was going to come back to fix the ceiling light after this. I decide to give him some money next time he came, but he did not turn up until I called the watchman another 2 days later to get someone to fix the ceiling light for me.

By now, a light bulb in the living room had burst, and I asked him to change the bulb after the ceiling light. I then gave him 20 dirhams and said, "Last time, First time hear. Shock, ya. Sorry ya!"

"Ok, Ok!" He took the note with a smile, "Next time fixing, call me."

And back to Boxes.