Wednesday is Skype with Minga day--also a day to write up reports, at least in the morning. In the afternoon we encountered a typically South American phenomenon--the slippage of the gears of time. We arrived for our appointment to interview the country rep here and discovered they were not home! They had been invited to a friend's house for lunch and it had run overtime.
Our host apologized when he arrived twenty minutes later, and again when two artisans arrived simultaneously with our entering the front door. This was the precious, precious couple who make the sweaters for dogs. They had brought a sample sweater and a whole bunch of adorable animal ornaments, knitted in bright colors and whimsical designs. One of them was something like a cow and something like a dog. I asked what it was, and they said a bear! When I looked puzzled, they explained it was a panda bear. That made sense of the black and white. When we asked them how they had gotten the idea of a panda, Luis replied, "From my imagination." He has quite an imagination! So we Googled pandas for him to see.
They had come to Romel to ask a question about their order. Spanish is not their first language--neither is it the first language of the person who sent the order. So Romel said I could help them all figure it out, because my first language is not Spanish, either. That's not the way he said it, actually--he said because I wasn't good at Spanish, and neither was the sender of the order, I would be able to understand the bad Spanish. I had to laugh. I did figure it out, though, with the help of a second e-mail which had been sent to clarify the first.
Afterwards, we interviewed Romel for three hours, until he said his head might explode, then returned via bus to our host family in Ilumán. This was a long day with a lot of brain gymnastics. It was so wonderful to see Luis and Maria getting ready to send their first order to the U.S. They are so eager, making samples as requested as quickly as they can. I am glad we can help them, as are they, I'm sure.
We're gradually beginning to understand some of the difficulties in communication, as Romel shared with us that he "doesn't have the gringo mind." We are digesting that information, wondering if we know all of what it means. For sure, things are more fluid down here--we schedule an interview and something else precludes or delays it. Everything from the driving to the daily routines seems to direct us (and everyone else) to go with the flow. Albert said (in the midst of a very heavy unexpected traffic jam) you just have to be "tranquilo." A not uncommon phrase when we are apologizing for something is "No te preocupes"--don't worry about it. In the U.S., we might be very worried indeed, but here, it's not something to disturb anyone's peace.
I personally can learn a lot from this typically Ecuadorean attitude.
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