Time Warp…

June 19, 2010 at 6:21 pm · Filed under Philippines, time, Uncategorized, work

Ecclesiastes 3: 1  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

One of the biggest adjustments to life in the Philippines is the way time works here; or maybe I should say, doesn’t work here.  It is not like America.  As a youth pastor in Colorado, I would schedule an early coffee, meeting at the church, lunch meeting, afternoon connect time with student, and maybe an evening activity of some kind.

In the book, ‘Culture Shock: Philippines’ it states, “schedule one meeting or task for the day because that is all you will accomplish.”

When I first arrived here, I experienced this but didn’t really understand why; as I just rode around with senior missionary Mark Alston.  After going it alone for a while now, I truly understand.  Things are very different here.  You have to be very strategic with how you do things.

IE.  Businesses open at 9am. they close for at least one hour for lunch and siesta.  They will all but shut down for merienda either mid morning or mid afternoon (maybe both).  It take about 20 minutes to get downtown.  That gives to the latitude to accomplish at least on task.  Considering that in this culture relationship and hospitality are extremely valued, you do not schedule meetings back to back; like pastor friends of mine are known to do in the states.  B/C 1 or more things happen:

1.  your appointment will last at least twice as long as you would expect; with the main reason for meeting being the very last thing you discuss

2.  thus you are late for your next meeting. or…the person you are to meet with arrives and joins the first meeting, thus negating the what you were to accomplish in the first meeting; meaning you will need to schedule a follow up meeting of the first appointment.

3.  if you end a meeting sooner than your counterpart is prepared for or set a defined ending time (ie. ‘i have to leave by 11am, so we’ll have to keep this brief’) conveys that you are superficial, you don’t truly care about the person, and are only pushing to achieve your agenda at the expense of the relationship.

4.  you arrive at your next meeting extremely late, which is ok, only to find out that the person has left to go home for siesta early and will meet another time.  or…you have worked to be there on time, damaging relationship with the previous person, only to find out the person you are meeting with is late (typical) and you sit around waiting for him to arrive, by the time he does, it’s almost lunch and siesta, so he suggests a reschedule for a better time, when you both will be more rested and prepared.

5.  Any attempt to do more than this only compounds the heartache; keep in mind you have about a 2 hour morning window and 2 hour afternoon window (now imagine trying to accomplish any kind of task associated with govt. (ie. drivers license).

By the time all this has unfolded, you are so mentally exhausted, you need your own siesta; at which point you begin to understand a little bit more about why things work the way they do.  Over time you accept the realities of ‘what is’.  And work within this framework.  Amazingly, after much time in which it seems like nothing is happening, suddenly everything happens at once.

And so is life in the majority world.  Welcome to provincial life in the Philippines.

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