Expectations

There are days here when I suddenly remember again how much more time it takes to live here than in the western world.  I love living here and generally don't mind that things are inconvenient or that it takes forever to get something accomplished that should have taken 5 minutes.  It's just an observation.

This week we are in Mwanza because 1) Our house that was supposed to be finished 4 months ago still isn't and we have no place to live in Geita, and 2) We had several things to do/buy that can't be done in Geita.  Today Brett spent 2 hours looking for a dish-drying rack.  There are no such things as dishwashers, so you'd think a little drying rack would be easy to find because surely everyone uses them.  Not so.  The first one Brett finally found, made of wood and metal, was about $40, so we decided we could do without a drying rack.  But then he stumbled upon a plastic one, priced at only $12, so we bought two.

Before that, Brett spent an hour at the post office because the guy we were supposed to pay to get our packages wasn't there.  Where was he?  Who knows?  Probably having breakfast or doing a favor for a family member, or maybe even just talking to a friend.  It's expected that someone will not always be where they are supposed to be, even at work, so waiting is just a part of life.

When I went to make a sandwich for lunch today, I discovered our bread was moldy. Thankfully we are in Mwanza, so I actually can just run to the store and get another loaf.  In Geita, though, I generally have to make the bread myself, which takes a few hours, and makes for a rather late lunch.

If you have a list of 10 things you want to accomplish in a day, you'll probably be lucky to get 2 of them done.  We've stopped making lists of 10 things to do.  The thing is, no one cares that those things don't get done.  It's ok with everyone if it happens the next day, or the next day, or the day after that.  The pace of life is slower--a lot slower, and if it takes 2 hours to find a dish drying rack and that causes you to  be an hour late to meet with someone, that's ok.  That person probably wasn't really expecting you to be on time anyway.  In fact, they probably only arrived 5 minutes before you.

You probably think this way of living is bothersome.  But it's all about expectations.  If you think your car should be out of the shop at 3:00 just because someone said it would and you planned your day around that, then yes, you will be bothered.  But if you have no expectations about when it will actually be ready, you'll be content as can be.  We have learned to be content with the slowness of life.  In fact, we've actually grown to like it.