The Rug

***Yes, this is Nikki's first "official" post since Mitch has started writing this blog***

Three months ago, when we moved to The Gambia,  I started work in an office building that was under-going serious renovations. My staff had been in the same office building for over twenty years, they had out grown the space: it was dilapidated, dirty, and well, embarrassing. In the past ninety days we've had walls torn down, offices relocated, floors retiled, bathrooms remodeled, entry ways and patios constructed, and the entire building painted. Not long ago I was able to see the light at the end of our narrow construction tunnel and I decided that to put the final "beautifying" touches on the office building, I would order a large ornate rug to put in the office lobby.

The rug was delivered to my office today. I was ecstatic, it was perfect. Lush colors, great graphics, like nothing you could find here, it was going to look fantastic in our lobby! Proudly, I took it around the office, showing it to all my staff. They were very impressed, but they asked what I was going to do with it. "Well, it's a rug, I'm going to put it in the lobby, it will look very nice there." Everyone looked at me dubiously and one of them said, "but it will get dirty." Um, yes, but it is a rug, that is ultimately it's purpose. Once this conversation started there was no going back, it was like the little snowball that starts a huge avalanche. Ten staff members looked on at me and fiercely protested my placement of the rug on the floor. They picked it up and told me that hanging it on the wall would be a much better use of this beautiful piece of artwork. Clearly, they did not understand the purpose of a rug! (I could've spent $5 and had a wall tapestry made!)

After much back and forth, my staff decided that they would allow me to put the rug on the floor, with one condition: it had to be covered by plastic. I still thought that defeated the purpose of a rug and made it ugly, so I said, "let's leave it on the floor for now and see how dirty it gets." At that point I probably shouldn't have headed back up to my office, because 10 minutes later I was told that no one saw things the way I did, and since we were unable to agree on what to do with the rug, it had been "put away".

The rug is now sitting in a storage room, where it won't get dirty, awaiting the day when the rainy season ends and when our newly constructed walls can hold the weight of a 50 lbs. decorative rug. Lesson learned: if you ever want something to be used for a functional purpose in Africa, make sure that it doesn't look nice (let's just hope this doesn't apply to office buildings).