I try to be punctual and efficient in my day to day activities, two qualities that go out the window here in Peru. David told me recently that he had an appointment the other day with another person at 7pm. He was at the appointed location at the appointed time. He waited and waited, the person finally showed up at 8:58. A bit perturbed he said “Where have you been? I have been here since 7pm!” The person responded, “Oh I thought our meeting was at 8pm.” To which he replied, “Okay but it is 8:58!” The person shot back, “Well it’s still 8 something.” People in Peru are never on time. Now I just assume that any appointment will start 15 to 30 minutes late. Anybody who is doing a service for you takes forever and does it the least efficient way possible. Food at a restaurant is delivered one plate at a time. “Oh you wanted silverware?” The motokar drivers kill me. Almost every time you are going any distance in a motokar the driver has to get gas. I have never seen a driver purchase more than 2 soles (66 cents) worth of gas. The other day a guy actually pulled into a gas station and bought 5 cents worth of gas. Gas is over $3 per gallon here. Paul has already been Peruvianized. The other day we were heading to the girls crisis center. He pulled out his motorcycle and started to kick start it. I could tell there was gas leaking and mentioned it. The bike started and he said jump on. I knew that the motorcycle was going to breakdown and it did, 100 yards into the trip. Paul just jumps off and pushes it about 50 yards to a mechanic. Both Paul and the mechanic knew exactly what the problem was, they needed to replace a short piece of tubing. The mechanic sits down and then realizes he needs tools so up he goes to get tools. Then he realizes he needs some tubing so he gets up and gets the tubing. Then he realizes he needs a knife to cut the tubing and its back up again and on and on and on. After 20 minutes of the back and forth the motorcycle was fixed. Sometimes you just want to scream “Dude why not bring everything you need on the first trip!” Eventually you learn “tranquillo”, just relax. If you accomplish two things per day then you have succeeded. Paul tells me he is going to take the country route for a prettier drive; really bumpy but prettier. About half way there we run out of gas. Paul says he knew he was almost out of gas but thought he had enough to get to the gas station. So we get off the bike and he lays it down on it’s side in the middle of the road, a Peruvian trick to get a little more gas in the carburetor. The motorcycle starts right up and off we go, barely making it to the gas station. Now it is happening to me I am becoming Peruvianized, I bought a motorcycle today. God help me.
