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« We do the puttying just like all house painters. It’s the scraping that I don’t do anymore. I did it for four years with the head workmen in Aigio and I suffered a lot, but now I am head workman. And I think back to what I suffered those four years there - when my fingers were becoming like cigarette paper because of the sandpaper, because of the scraping, and they were bleeding - now I’ve forgotten all that. And I am head workman and I deserve to be called by that name - that is, "mastoras" - because I really know the job. They only call you mastoras after many years. And I feel very good when I hear the word: when for example my apprentice calls me "mastoras." »
« They gave me other jobs within the company, I was put in charge of the orders: we did everything, everything, whatever the company was in need of, because I started understanding the language and I was, I could say that I was very good at my job. I was like their right hand man. There were also the Pakistanis, but the Pakistanis didn’t know the language. They unloaded the stuff. I knew it. I knew all the stock we had in the store. I knew it by heart. That was something my bosses liked very much. So by then I became their right hand man. Furthermore, as soon as I started learning and became experienced he [the boss] appointed me a Pakistani apprentice. I began to rise bit by bit. I saw myself somewhat differently. I went up a bit. »
Learning a trade
