2. jobs that you do for a few hours a week

Activity 3. Reading. MONOWI.

1. 
   Elsie Eiler is the mayor of Manowi, a tiny town in northern Nebraska, USA. But that is not her job. She is also the town clerk, the town treasurer, the librarian, and she works in the bar. Why has she got a lot of different jobs? Because there is nobody else to do them. Monowi has got a population of one-Elsie.
   
2. 
   Monowi is an extraordinary sight. There are about twelve old wooden houses. They are all-empty and are surrounded by a few trees, some old cars and lots of rubbish. The town is completely silent. An old yellow school bus, with no wheels or seats, stands next to the small school. The school closed 40 years ago. Opposite Elsie’s bar is an old building, filled with rubbish. It was a shop but it closed in the 1950s. Even the church has been closed since 1960.
   
3. 
   The busiest time for Monowi aws in the 1930s. Then, the population was 150, mostly farmers and their families. There was a railway too. However, the farmers could not compete with the enormous industrialized farms. They left the town to look for other work. In 1971, the railway closed and the town began to die. Three years ago, the last inhabitant, apart from Elsie and her husband, moved away. Then Elsie’s husband died, and Elsie become the town’s only inhabitant.
   
4. 
   Elsie’s son and daughter left years ago to find work in bigger towns. The small farmers and businessmen can’t make any money here, ”says Elsie. It is the same in other small towns in the region. Between 1996 and 2004, almost 500,000 people left the rural state of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, North Dokota, South Dakota and Iowa, and went to live in big cities.
   
5. 
   Now Elsie lives alone, but she is not lonely. Her food is good, the beer is cold, and farmers and truck drivers travel to a long way to eat at her café. “One day Monowi will just be memories, and it will probably turn to dust,” she says. “But I like it here, and as long as I can take care of myself, I’ll stay here”.