Friday, March 19, 2004

Mama Nancy

I've now reached a very friendly stage in my relationship with the mamas who sit at the doorways on Temple St. It took them a couple of weeks before they stopped seeing me as a potential customer for their younger counterparts upstairs. For the last two weeks they have all just smiled and said hello.

I have two special mama friends. I met one of them when I was in a Nepali restaurant a few weeks and recieved a phone call. I didn't want to be rude and talk at the table so I went out the front door. Finding the street too noisy (as always!) I ducked into a doorway and went on with the conversation. I'd been there a couple of minutes when mama noticed me and thought I was there for a visit and just using the phone as a decoy. The following interaction was very embarrassing but we've become good friends since.

Anyway, my best mama friend by far is Nancy who calls in customers for a room in the building opposite to mine. Nancy works a 13 hour afternoon/evening shift and another mama does mornings. Nancy calls her 'old mama' which means something cos Nancy isn't young either. Nancy was the one who told Daisy and I that she used to see me in the window all the time before I got a bathroom curtain.

Seated on her stool in the street, Nancy sees and knows all. She's becoming my source of local info and yesterday I took her down a cup of tea for her to drink while we had a chat. I found out that she and a mama from two streets across are going to Thailand in a few days for 'swimming, swimming, dancing, dancing, party, party'. Having found out that Nancy only gets $HK22 commission for each customer she recruits (average six per shift) I was a bit surprised at this. Nonetheless, I'm glad that even mamas get to have fun.