⌛ Frustrations

I'm guessing, a lot of us get frustrated at times, and I (we) don't always have a way to vent those frustrations, so, if you will indulge me, I'm going to vent them here.....I have no place else.
Please, I am asking you not to reply that I need to go " back to the USA", or "you made a mistake". I'm here to stay.
By education, I am a mechanical engineer and have a second degree in electrical engineering. I come from a world of being exact and doing everything in the proper order.
When I came here, I knew things were going to be different. I have been very careful not ever to say "this is how we do it in the US".
But now I am trying to help my in-laws upgrade their house.
My father-in-law parked his motor In the living room when I got here because they worried about it getting stolen. So I bought and installed an alarm system for him when I bought one for me. He then parked on dirt (mud) next to the house. I then had that area (6' by 30') done in cement. Still worried about theft, I had metal locking gates installed. That all went well.
Then my brother-in-law that works in Quatar decided to pay for other upgrades. So they are having ceramic tile inside, the cinder block smoothed over with concrete and metal windows guards fabricated and installed.
Now for my frustrations......
The men doing the outside cement and inside tile work decided to mix the concrete on the new slab I had poured outside. When they finish work for the day, they just walk away leaving the concrete mess for us to clean up.
The men doing the outside obviously splatter a lot of concrete on the surrounding areas, and again, they leave it for us to clean up. The men making the window grills finished and installed
them before the concrete was done on one side so now the grills will have concrete droppings all over them. The men installed the grills and pinched (and shorted) the cable for the Internet, and also the TV antenna.
I can't say anything because it is not my house and I'm not paying the bill. I paid for the outside slab and the gates and they were done correctly.
I said something to my wife and she just said "that's the way things are done here".
The right way and the wrong way are always there to be seen.
In the US (and I know I am not in the US now), we always had the last paragraph on a bid that said "all of the above work will be done in a professional and workman-like manner for the sum of...."
I guess here the words "professional" and "workman-like manner" just do not apply.
Again, I have nobody else to relate my frustration to, so please take this in the manner that it was intended.
I guess in time, more than the 10 months I've been here, I will adjust.
At least I hope so.

 

Ron my man!
You have a problem now that every newcomer expat has, and they all think their situation is different.
What I suggest you do immediately is to put at least a 4 hour bus ride between you and your Asawa's family.
If you don't, you will be nickle & dimed to death.
Want to do something for your in-Laws? Slip on out the back door and continue to allow them to be self sufficient.

 

This frustration comes all the time if you hire "occasional workers"
Most of the time they spend in a horizontal way only to wake up so now and than for a small job to be done "their way".
It is difficult to find good workers for small jobs, the good ones are mostly working for a contractor.
Sometimes you can find someone willing to work on a Sunday (day off with contractor) or contact a contractor to hire someone for a day or two (will be more expensive)

 

With my estimation of YOU Ron, you WILL adjust but won't get rid of certain frustrations. Believe me.
And I even believe that it is BETTER not to get rid of all your frustrations.
I have build here some houses and are going to build again one at our place.
We are continouosly improving since 5 years. I still get frustrated and the GOOD thing of it is that my crew of people slowly slowly are improving on their habits and even give me the reward of showing that they finally see the better way of doing things.
But I keep them, unless they steel, don't show up or inform me and don't want to show any try to do things better as I had explained to them.
So far only one worker got fired.
They still let me go for the same types of nails the next day again :D
Calculating the right amount seems to be impossible.
Maybe that has as well something to do with their own situation of never having been able to pay for all the required materials at a start of a project.
Believe me... I often have been angry on them after again a (in our perception) stupidity of doing things.
But they learned that I am not angy on them the next day anymore and hope for the better. The better has SLOWLY come :D
I adjust .....they adjust ....a win-win