The plumbers

Last year our upstairs shower's draining was blocked, water leaked from the ceiling, found some plumber to fix it, changed the pipes, mended the ceiling. Less than half of a year, the shower's pipes blocked again, water again started leaking down, on and off. Called the old plumber Matt, he will fix it again. "You got to have some discount from him because of the crappy job he did last time." I reminded Raj many times because the new draining system Matt replaced for us was not powerful enough to keep itself from being blocked by my long hairs.... 

Matt and a guy came today, Matt opened up the ceiling to take an assessment, the new guy standing 3 meters away, observing, Raj was home with them, I ran off to pick up my daughter from school. When I came back, Matt and the new guy were leaving, they stopped to wave and chat with me, informing me they would come tomorrow to fix the pipes and ceiling. They were super sweet, that made me happy. 

I came in, asked Raj how was it, did they give an estimate of the cost? Are we getting a discount? 

"They are from Afghanistan! The new guy who was shadowing Matt? He took the flight out of Kabul exactly on August 15th, barely missed the chaos in the airport. He had come here a few months ago already, he worked for the State Department in Kabul for years, highly educated, fluent in English. Recently he went back to Kabul to apply the visas for his family, and luckily he booked the flight out beforehand and took the flight on August 15th a few hours before the fall. His family got out somehow, now staying in Doha, waiting to be united here. Now he is learning about plumbing from Matt who is a remote relative of his, planning to be a plumber to feed his family." 

"Can they use their credentials back in Kabul to have equivalent jobs here?" "No, usually not that easy, a lot of government officers in Kabul came out to be delivery guys, plumbers, cleaners. They are happy and satisfied that at least their families are alive and their kids can grow up healthy, receiving proper education." 

My jaw dropped on the floor, I was left speechless and ready to hide in my room and cry for an hour....

"ya, we should give some additional to help him and his family..." "ya, ya we should we should...."