One thing you quickly realise after almost a month in the DRC is that time is not so realistic.
Actually it is never realistic. So now we say "congolistically how long is it going to take".
Today, our interviewer turned up late at the house,we were late for the shoot, she was late for work and noone seemed to worried about that so much what really was a subject of concern was weither or not the subject was dressed appropriately!
On wednesday we met with the minister of labour. The appoitment was at 4pm. The interviewer is reluctant to get there at 3:45pm, claiming that we're not going to be received before 5pm anyway. We argue. I win. We get there for 3:55pm. We seat in the waiting room til 6pm. He's happy he was right. No apology from either the receptionist nor the minister for being 2 hours late....
After almost 2 years in a land where the motto is " time is money", it is difficult to understand that here people literally don't give a damn about being on time. Now i know where I get it from.
It is a interesting characteristic, because, it makes things much relax in the end. Everyone knows that the roads are too bad to be there on time, cars are too old to be free from breaking down, poeple speak too much to make things brief and work is just too annoying to care about being on time.
This is it for today, I am too late for dinner
Natacha
1 comment:
I arrived late to Ben's place here in Boston. We had the ceremonial tobacco smoke and talked of the journey that you two are on. This is officially my first blog post ever. We are inspired by the intent and focus of your mission, and look forward to being reminded of such things as time, the ways and whys of punctuality (or lack thereof), and setting suns on lands distant to the Northeast. Adelante equipo!
JPR
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