Waiting

Morrito is my waiting room. It doesn’t particularly matter what the planned activity of the day is, but I am always found waiting. Take today for instance; we, Darling, one of the nurses in Morrito, and I said we would go vaccinate in La Cruz, the closest community to Morrito that is about a 20 minute walk away, at 5:30 am in order to beat the heat. So I thought that because we actually have a valid reason, the heat, we might actually leave on time. I got up at 4:30—and we all know I’m not a morning person—in order to have ample time to make coffee and have some cereal, and then stress about being 5 minutes late. Yet there I was, at 6:30, sitting alone in the Health Center, waiting. I was lucky, I only waited 1 hour for Darling to show up. Usually the wait is over 2 hours, or half the day, especially if I am trying to leave Morrito with a group of people.
But, I never really learn my lesson. Nothing has ever really started “on time” in the year that I’ve been in Morrito. And I know late showing up an hour after the determined time is pretty much the custom here. Yet I remain hopeful, if not a little delusional, and arrive with punctuality, if not a little late by US standards. I’m always worried I’ll miss something. I guess the fluidness of time here will never be something I fully adapt to and when I return to the States I’ll probably be fashionably late to everything. But, you know, worse things could happen. And all this waiting has certainly given me a lot of time for reflection. :-)