16 DABONGThe families’ working day started at five am, but that was no hardship to the visitors as the hotel began to function at six anyway. It seemed that everyone except, granny, Yai, had a paying job or was in school. Alice and Sophie’s mothers worked in the state-owned village shop making sweets from local fruits and baskets to sell in the market, while most of the men worked in rubber plantations or hunted. They also had a plot of land that they farmed, a flock of chickens and a few goats. The Brits wanted to pay their way, since it was obvious that they would be a financial burden on the families if they did not. So after those who were leaving for work or school had left and the house had been restored to order, Gareg drove those who were left the twenty-five kilometres to the nea