It is not like we don't understand cultural differences in time. While teaching in Honduras, my students lied on their graduation invitations about
the time---they wanted their parents to be there. We once arrived at the time stated for a young students birthday party and they were all still in
their pajamas. But here we go again, working to make that and other cultural adjustments.
On a Monday, after a holiday, John drives to one of the hardware stores---it is 8:45 am---they open at 8, but not this day. He returns there at 10
and yes the door is open, but the owner is not there. The mini-school bus driver from Punta Prieta is there minding the store. Finally Isela
arrives, but does not know the price for the rollar paint pans---John leaves with two of them and we will pay later---a small town thing for sure.
I was home waiting for our builder, Armando, who was to arrive at 8:30 to discuss business, but really operates on Baja time---we didn't see him until
that evening. Ahorita has lots of meanings and understandings. We just don''t wait anymore---we go about our business. Besides, if someone want to
talk to anyone, they are easy to find in town.
Now Jaime, the Antelope Preserve Employee/carpenter, not only speaks very good English, he obviously has worked with gringos before. He almost gave
us a heat attack one day. He was to arrive at 10 am to do some work for us, and came by at 9 am to tell us that he forgot he had a meeting and would
not be there until 11 am. It did not matter that he did not arrive until after noon, he told us he was going to be late. We joked with him later
about it. He had worked in Punta Chivato before and understood the gringo since of time.
Then there was our evening meal----we still eat on gringo time. John was starved that day and he had prepared a beautiful fish filet dinner. We had
waited as Armando was suppose to come---he did, right when dinner was done---still afternoon by Baja standards. He said Jaime was coming right away.
We didn't start eating for quite a while---miscommuication and Jaime didn't come until the next day.
Dinner is reheated, we are ready to dive in, using the 5 gallon paint bucket as our table. Opps, man on our front porch who speaks a little
English---he needs a push as he is stuck in the sand. John sets down his dinner and is off to the rescue with our tow rope. I watched from the front
porch and saw him returning home in more local fashion than cautious gringo drit road driving.
Ready to eat again---dinner a little colder and not quite so good now. A car pulls up. I go to the door---it is a friend of the first person who was
again trapped in sand. Man in car just looks at me and says, puuuuuuuuuush? John is off again. This time he really returned home at local speed
followed by a large cloud of dust.
He treatened to turn off the lights and eat in the dark---dinner was still very good.
We must adjust our concept of time.
DianeDavid K - 6-25-2007 at 11:28 PM
'Baja time' (for us in Baja) is eat when you are hungry and sleep when you are tired, and no wearing watches!
'Mexican time' is 'whenever' (as you have discovered)...
BajaCactus (Antonio) likes to joke about it... he is very educated, from the city and deals with 'Mexican time' in business!
It's a new way to enjoy life... Don't let it get you upset... it is their country, so relax... Remember, 'mañana' doesn't mean tomorrow... it just
means 'not today'!DianaT - 6-26-2007 at 05:22 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by whistler
JD,if your in the Abreojos area around the first two weeks in July,drop on by.Just ask anybody in town where Glenn's place is at.
Probably won't make it to Abreojos during that time, but will later---we will check to see if you are in town. Also, if you go north, look us up in
Bahia Asuncion --- not hard to find us--just follow the main street toward la playa and look for the yellow house --- or ask where the gringos live!
Diane
[Edited on 6-27-2007 by jdtrotter]amir - 6-28-2007 at 02:25 PM
Mañana and ahorita. Can mean anything except tomorrow and soon...
It took me a few times of waiting and waiting to figure it out. Eventually we found out that the best way to make somebody come, was to try to take a
nap. Then for sure whoever it was we were waiting for, would show up...
--AmirOsprey - 6-28-2007 at 02:29 PM
Quizás
Yesterday the beach was a miniature war zone. Squadrons of dragonflies, wave after wave of tiny helicopters, strafed the beach, making a million
sorties as though they followed some unseen leader with orders to move west but stay between the shore and the palms. The mission: find and eat every
small bug.
While I was pretending to be a heroic war correspondent risking my neck to the give the world real time sights and sounds of the action along the
beachhead, two Mexican fishing boats roared through the surf and up onto the beach. Pepe and his brothers said their hellos. Pepe said the sigarones,
the dragonflies, signaled rain. When I asked him when we could expect the rain he answered with his grinning-pirate look which said it pleased him to
be vague.
His brother Juan said they come out after a rain. Juan had the look and demeanor of a Mexican Archie Bunker. Whom should I believe? If we throw out
the niggardly constraints of time, they were both right.
This is how I spend my time in Mexico—having to choose between two or more answers to every question. The land may be mostly implacable granite and
prickly cactus, but it is pure quicksand for anyone looking for a hard-and-fast answer to anything.
In order to better communicate, I have forced myself to be a better listener. I have not learned enough. I use the words siempre and nunca, always and
never, as the conversation dictates. These words are rarely spoken in this pueblo—perhaps used little in all of Mexico. In a land where nothing is
what it appears to be, I should expect to hear probables and posibles, a vezes, quisás mañana. (probably, possibly, at times, perhaps tomorrow) The
language demonstrates the basic fatalistic view of the Mexican people. Fatalism defines the culture, pervades every sector of society.
The bending and warping of time is not culturally unique, but it stands out like a c-ckroach on a wedding cake when compared to the atomic clock
exactitudes we Americans are so proud of—the “seventeen jewels that dictate the rules.”
The western world misinterprets the Mexican time view and world view, and therefore views the Mexican people as non-productive and lazy. Time, taken
in the abstract, the Mexican way, offsets the Judeo/Christian stigma of guilt. Time-bending allows Mexicans to enjoy the leisure and forgiveness of a
mas or menos¸ more or less attitude about how they run their daily lives. Being a day early or three days late does not call for a trip to the
confessional, a single mea culpa. When two compadres joke with one another, the word lazy, flojo, is often used, but it evokes laughter, not scorn.
Only now, after spending a few years in Mexico, am I beginning to understand and appreciate the subtlety of these quirks of culture. One day I may
reap some of the benefits myself. I won’t bore you with a long list of wonderful side effects, but we can both feel the obvious orgullo de patria,
country pride, a Mexican worker must feel, arriving a week late for work, upon learning that his whole crew was laid off several days ago.vandenberg - 6-28-2007 at 02:29 PM
Almost like fishing. Have yourself a beer and a sandwich and "voila", a strike ?:DianaT - 6-28-2007 at 03:06 PM
Osprey,
You word it so well. While there are cultural differences in the concept of time and its relationship to the world, they are simply differences.
After having lived in Central America, we came to appreciate two different views and the advantages and disadvantages of both.
Working together was a real education---not just the concept of time being different, but meetings were fun---one culture heads straight for the
point, and the other circles around, and around, and often the point is just understood. That is to say nothing about all of the polite conversation
that proceeded every encounter.
While the Central American's and the Mexicans are VERY different in many ways, there are some things that are similar. We are enjoying getting back
into the change----and even while trying to eat dinner, we just laughed at what was happening. It is we who need to adjust once again.
Diane
[Edited on 6-28-2007 by jdtrotter]
Life's a mystery...Then you die
Dave - 6-28-2007 at 04:19 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by lencho
They share the subjunctive. A difficult leap for many gringos.
--Larry
Before I leap I measure the span. Seems like the logical thing to do.
Anyone appreciative of relative time obviously hasn't experienced a medical emergency while under its influence.
Or lived to tell about it.
Diane
Baja Bernie - 6-28-2007 at 05:14 PM
This is what my Mexican friends taught me and it is on the back cover of my first book............"Expose yourself!!! To a culture that will teach
you how to relax and enjoy yourself and those around you. Learn that time is only your friend if its passing adds to your enjoyment of life.
Good words to hold upper most in your mind while in Paradise.
[Edited on 6-29-2007 by Baja Bernie]
Bernie
DianaT - 6-28-2007 at 05:55 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by Baja Bernie
This is what my Mexican friends taught me and it is on the back cover of my first book............"Espose yourself!!! To a culture that will teach
you how to relax and enjoy yourself and those around you. Learn that time is only your friend if its passing adds to your enjoyment of life.
Good words to hold upper most in your mind while in Paradise.
That is a good one, and one we will remember. Thank you for sharing it.
I dedicated the last picture in my Pulpo y Lobos Marinos thread to you, and your understanding.
Thanks
Diane
I missed it--I will look!
Baja Bernie - 6-28-2007 at 05:56 PM
Larry
Baja Bernie - 6-28-2007 at 05:59 PM
Yes, Sir! I do attempt to reach all types when peddling my books..............And I even attempt to pass something worthwhile along to my readers.
Have a Great Baja Day.DENNIS - 6-28-2007 at 06:23 PM
