Mma Makutsi
The wonderful Grace Makutsi must be in her early, or perhaps early mid, twenties (maybe somewhere in the range 21-27). She is not pretty in the classical physical sense so many men very foolishly regard as important (I hesitate to describe her as "plain", as it seems unkind, and I don't want to be unkind to Mma Makutsi, because it would be a bit like shooting fish in a barrel). She dresses a little strangely, with a definite old fashioned tinge, and without, I'm afraid to say, very much in the way of taste. She has what could almost, if she were more sexual, be described as a fetish about shoes, and she wears enormous glasses that many people appear to regard as rather weird.
Mma Makutsi was brought up in a country village, and like so many brightly intelligent Botswanans for whom there is no other place to work she made her way to Gaborone. New to what she undoubtedly regards as the big and scary city she has no truck with it's often strange and radical ways. She could not afford university, so she attended the Botswana Secretarial College, for which she has considerable regard. Of her graduation from this college she has, rightly, immense pride. As she tells absolutely anyone who will, and even some who will not, listen that she passed with a mark of 97%.
At the college Mma Makutsi ran up against a group of students for whom she had absolutely no respect, and with whom she had nothing in common. The flibberty gibbets, the giggly little trollopes who sat up the back of the class constantly chattering, ignoring the teachers, talking about boys, boys, boys, and in between what they seemed to regard as an almost endlessly fascinating topic they discuss getting married, fuss almost constantly about what Mma Makutsi regarded as their overly brief and tasteless clothing and the colour of their nail polish, and plot how they were going to trap some stupid rich man into marriage.
The ringleader of this group was the grossly offensive, plotting, scheming, and treacherous Violet Sephotho. Violet often runs up against Mma Makutsi, usually not hesitating to show her contempt for a woman she doesn't understand, only showing a greasy niceness when she wants something, like stealing a man in whom Mma Makutsi is interested. Compliments from Violet are a sign Mma Makutsi should tread extremely warily indeed.
When she graduates with her 97%, Mma Makutsi believes, reasonably, one would think, she will have no trouble getting a job. But, oh what a cruel place this can be for the Grace Makutsis of the world. While the supposedly pretty girls, who mostly got less than 50%, had no trouble getting good jobs by flashing their legs and breasts, Mma Makutsi went for interview after interview and could get no work at all. What none of these men could see was that while Mma Makutsi was not beautiful on the surface, with her "difficult" skin, she was in fact greatly beautiful in so many other much more important ways.
Still, while Mma Makutsi has an undoubtedly good heart, she can be extremely judgemental, and is sometimes very unwisely outspoken. Nonetheless, she is exceptionally hard working and has a very powerful work ethic, coloured, perhaps, by a slightly inflated sense of her abilities. This is not to say she's incompetent, she's not, in fact she's far from it, but she is not, perhaps, as wise as she likes to think. Not as wise, for example, as Mma Ramotswe.
Mma Makutsi's over-confidence can sometimes cause her to go off half cocked, without properly thinking things through, or discussing matters with someone else, such as her boss. And, in conjunction, her somewhat fiery temper can sometimes cause her to act and/or speak without thinking through the full consequences, which can sometimes be dire.
However, her work ethic and her immense capacity for love and friendship can make her a very trustworthy, faithful, and honourable employee, and more particularly a wonderful relative, friend and lover. Her care for her extremely ill brother and her fiancée Phuti Radaputi is fantastic, and her affection for Mma Ramotswe is, not to put too fine a word on it, extreme.
Perhaps fortunately, like Mma Ramotswe Mma Makutsi is a very traditional lady, but also like Mma Ramotswe her traditionalism is very strongly tinged with an awareness of the faults of men, criticism of changes occurring in Botswana, especially among young people, and the need for greater equality for women.
Initially, Grace is employed solely as a secretary. And very efficient indeed she proves to be. She brings order and structure into the business, and manages to turn Mma Ramotswe's rather sloppy approach to finances into a very well formulated set of accounts. She even manages to turn out well presented letters on an old ex-secretarial college typewriter that does not have all its keys, making sure she's always banging away and speaking about important but imaginary clients whenever a prospective client turns up at the door.
At first Mma Ramotswe is very reluctant to involve Mma Makutsi in the detective side of the business, but Grace proves herself and moves up the imaginary ranks of employment within the detective agency. Now, she is really in her full element, running the office, and doing responsible detective work. She feels and indeed is now really important, working at something that needed her skills, intelligence, and full range of capabilities.
Mma Makutsi was brought up in a country village, and like so many brightly intelligent Botswanans for whom there is no other place to work she made her way to Gaborone. New to what she undoubtedly regards as the big and scary city she has no truck with it's often strange and radical ways. She could not afford university, so she attended the Botswana Secretarial College, for which she has considerable regard. Of her graduation from this college she has, rightly, immense pride. As she tells absolutely anyone who will, and even some who will not, listen that she passed with a mark of 97%.
At the college Mma Makutsi ran up against a group of students for whom she had absolutely no respect, and with whom she had nothing in common. The flibberty gibbets, the giggly little trollopes who sat up the back of the class constantly chattering, ignoring the teachers, talking about boys, boys, boys, and in between what they seemed to regard as an almost endlessly fascinating topic they discuss getting married, fuss almost constantly about what Mma Makutsi regarded as their overly brief and tasteless clothing and the colour of their nail polish, and plot how they were going to trap some stupid rich man into marriage.
The ringleader of this group was the grossly offensive, plotting, scheming, and treacherous Violet Sephotho. Violet often runs up against Mma Makutsi, usually not hesitating to show her contempt for a woman she doesn't understand, only showing a greasy niceness when she wants something, like stealing a man in whom Mma Makutsi is interested. Compliments from Violet are a sign Mma Makutsi should tread extremely warily indeed.
When she graduates with her 97%, Mma Makutsi believes, reasonably, one would think, she will have no trouble getting a job. But, oh what a cruel place this can be for the Grace Makutsis of the world. While the supposedly pretty girls, who mostly got less than 50%, had no trouble getting good jobs by flashing their legs and breasts, Mma Makutsi went for interview after interview and could get no work at all. What none of these men could see was that while Mma Makutsi was not beautiful on the surface, with her "difficult" skin, she was in fact greatly beautiful in so many other much more important ways.
Still, while Mma Makutsi has an undoubtedly good heart, she can be extremely judgemental, and is sometimes very unwisely outspoken. Nonetheless, she is exceptionally hard working and has a very powerful work ethic, coloured, perhaps, by a slightly inflated sense of her abilities. This is not to say she's incompetent, she's not, in fact she's far from it, but she is not, perhaps, as wise as she likes to think. Not as wise, for example, as Mma Ramotswe.
Mma Makutsi's over-confidence can sometimes cause her to go off half cocked, without properly thinking things through, or discussing matters with someone else, such as her boss. And, in conjunction, her somewhat fiery temper can sometimes cause her to act and/or speak without thinking through the full consequences, which can sometimes be dire.
However, her work ethic and her immense capacity for love and friendship can make her a very trustworthy, faithful, and honourable employee, and more particularly a wonderful relative, friend and lover. Her care for her extremely ill brother and her fiancée Phuti Radaputi is fantastic, and her affection for Mma Ramotswe is, not to put too fine a word on it, extreme.
Perhaps fortunately, like Mma Ramotswe Mma Makutsi is a very traditional lady, but also like Mma Ramotswe her traditionalism is very strongly tinged with an awareness of the faults of men, criticism of changes occurring in Botswana, especially among young people, and the need for greater equality for women.
Initially, Grace is employed solely as a secretary. And very efficient indeed she proves to be. She brings order and structure into the business, and manages to turn Mma Ramotswe's rather sloppy approach to finances into a very well formulated set of accounts. She even manages to turn out well presented letters on an old ex-secretarial college typewriter that does not have all its keys, making sure she's always banging away and speaking about important but imaginary clients whenever a prospective client turns up at the door.
At first Mma Ramotswe is very reluctant to involve Mma Makutsi in the detective side of the business, but Grace proves herself and moves up the imaginary ranks of employment within the detective agency. Now, she is really in her full element, running the office, and doing responsible detective work. She feels and indeed is now really important, working at something that needed her skills, intelligence, and full range of capabilities.
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