Monday, March 9

This morning we took the bus into Otavalo to continue our interview with Romel. He had said to us last time, "I doesn't have the gringo mind." Today we wanted to find out more about that. What are the invisible (to us) differences between North and south American thinking? The fish never sees the water, nor do we ever get more than a glimpse of the basic attitudes underlying our thinking.

Romel said that we from the north are driven by the clock. Here in Ecuador, where so many things northerners take for granted (punctual transport, reliable telecommunication, etc.) either don't exist or are severely compromised by events that would be considered abnormal in the north, but are a daily occurrence here, the main goal is to remain "tranquilo." In the north, where traffic jams are frequent, there is much honking and cursing and shaking of fists or fingers. Here traffic jams are just as frequent, but they are not considered a personal affront, and there is far less honking or other negative reaction. Our bus, for example was about 15 minutes late. We hurried as fast as we could, and ended up only being five minutes late. Yet we felt guilty. It hadn't fazed Romel at all. He just spent a few extra minutes in bed, for which he felt grateful, not annoyed.

I started thinking of the many other ways the clock drives us in the north. We're annoyed by lateness and feel guilty if we are the tardy ones. We always are thinking of how to fit things into the time available, instead of doing what we want to do. We think of time as money, and measure things in dollars per hour or per day. It seems normal, but what if time is given to us to DECIDE what to do with, not to fill with busy-ness?  What if I decided from minute to minute what was important and I did it with conscious awareness of what I was doing? The sense of routine would be gone, and maybe I might not miss so many divine appointments. It's worth trying.

We went to lunch in a different place today, our outdoor cafe being closed on Mondays. After we got home, we worked more on the different reports. A lot of food for thought in what Romel told us.