13/02/2013
Just as I start to think I am getting
to be on the same page with the locals here, I find out that I am in a whole
new book of my own. I say this in regards to general courtesy of organisation
skills, timekeeping and work ethic.
These three things are very important
to me, and I tend to find I am very efficient at them all, most likely from
having worked in corporate environments but also because this is just part my
personality. This is one of the things I am finding most frustrating and
difficult to adjust to.
Here, in Ethiopia, timekeeping is not
a practiced art. Everyone is very laid back and casual about getting to where
they should be at the time the vaguely agreed. I usually find people who are
tardy rude, particularly when they are considerably late and fail to
courteously tell me they would be – for me this would be polite practice at
home. “Hi, sorry I am on my way but I’m going to be late!” – This is yet to
happen, and I don’t think it will. Not because they are intentionally being
rude, but because it just does not seem to occur to them, nor does it seem to
matter. It is a completely different mind-set to what I am used to. It is also
fair to say I am not a patient person, and waiting around is not something I
particularly enjoy!
I know I am used to fast pace
environments, I am often told I do not relax very much at home and I am always
doing something. Thus, I am always getting things done, completed,
accomplished, achieved, use any word you like.
It is exactly 3 weeks since I left the
UK today, and so far I do not feel I have accomplished enough to justify my
time spent here. This is not for lack of trying, but just because everything is
at a slower pace here. I am going to have to learn to expect less and get used
to the ‘do it later, maybe’ attitude I seem to have found.
I cannot help but think how much more
would get done here if the work ethic of many organisations was a little more
like mine, we could sail through things and change the country in a couple of
months (Okay, okay, that is maybe a little ambitious, but we could certainly
achieve more in a shorter space of time). This would only work if everyone was
on board, and sadly it seems that it is only I, and maybe a few other UK
volunteers that would be.
I conclude that I will have to try to
blend to the attitudes I perceive here, and hope that when I go home I will
just spring back to my usual busy, organised and timely self! This is not going
to be easy, as getting frustrated seems to come more easily that accepting
lateness or getting nothing achieved from a day of ‘work’ – hakuna matata as
they say.
Kx
I realise that I am generalising in
this post, this is based on some of the people I have encountered so far, who
all share a similar mentality on these topics, therefore generalising is
rational. However I would not go as far as to say that all Ethiopians fall into
this category. At the moment in time of writing this is my opinion and feelings
on such matters.
Hi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI didn’t get a chance to write you a letter to take with you (although I wanted to) so I thought I would write you a comment on here instead. I must admit, I hadn’t been reading your blog until now (although I had been following your adventures through Facebook and chatting to Steve), but I have now read every single word of your blog in a single sitting (which I think is quite the achievement considering I’ve never read an entire book and hate reading).
I understand your frustration with the slow procrastinators of the world, for I too am a “get things done” kind of guy and often am happy with nothing less than perfection in everything I do. So I can’t imagine what it must be like there with some of the things that “just are as they are” and the people with a “That’ll do” attitude towards everything. I understand why it’s like that over there and I’m not sure I would have survived the culture shock that you have had to endure.
I’m probably not in a position to offer you any practical advice for the situation you find yourself in, so let me give you this computer related analogy which might help. When programming, we have things called threads. A thread is basically a list of tasks that get done, one at a time, in order. Sometimes a task is offloaded to something else, reading data from a database for example. With modern computers, instead of sitting there waiting for the data to come back, we can use multiple threads to reduce the amount of time wasted waiting for other stuff to get back to us. This allows us to continue working on other stuff while we wait. I guess what I’m saying here in an incredibly awkward round about kind of way, is that you could achieve more by attempting to do more things simultaneously. I hear girls are good at multitasking, show Ethiopia how it’s done!
We’re all really proud of everything you’ve achieved so far and I think I speak for everyone when I say that we have no doubt that you will leave an indelible mark on the lives of the people you have met and the areas you have visited.
Don’t let it get to you, you are making a difference; I know many people believe me to be a very strong person (not physically), but let me be the first to say that you are a stronger person than I.