Honduran Time

There are tons of things I have been tryig to "get used to" since arriving in Honduras-- the new food, new family, new language, frequent power outages, not putting toilet paper in the toilet, hiding my money/phone in creative places-- but one that has stood out to me lately is the need for patience.  Before coming, I had been told that Latin American cultures put very little emphasis on time.  I had read that relationships take priority over efficiency.  But to actually experience this is different.  Living it makes it more real, more meaningful.  This is not something that comes easy to me.  As an American gringa (and ok, maybe I'm more this way than other gringos), I like making plans, making lists, being on time, and checking the time pretty frequently.  I'm slowly learning that holding on to these habits too tightly will make my year here very frustrating.  I'm learning to be ok with, and even expect, people and events being late.  For example, last week I went on a field trip with the fifth graders at my school to a museum near the Centro of Teguc.  We left the school about a half hour late, which was fine.  After our tour, the bus was supposed to pick us up at 10:30 so that the kids would be home by 11 for lunch (in the yellow buses it takes 30-45 minutes to get from Nueva Suyapa to the Centro, whereas on a rapidito or car it might take 15 minutes.  We waited for the buses outside the museum in the parque (which we had heard might be peligroso, but oh well), and waited, and waited... the bus finally showed up at 12:15.  The thing that surprised me most about this was that, aside from a couple eye-rolls from the teachers, nobody seemed to mind.  I am constantly amazed by the patience of Hondurans.  In classrooms, teachers patiently listen to their students shouting out answers or telling them stories about what happened to them that morning.  Structure and order are rarely present in the classroom at all, but that's a subject for another day.  It takes longer than expected to walk anywhere, because along the way it's expected that you will stop and chat with everyone you pass-- asking questions about their family is a must.  I have learned that there is very little (if any) "planning ahead"-- scheduling something a week in advance is unheard of.  If you have planned to meet someone on Saturday, you had better call Friday night and again Saturday morning to confirm. 
When I say these things, in no way do I mean to criticize.  There are things that I really like about this way of life.  I like that people can randomly stop by the house to chat, or just to watch some TV.  I like that it's ok to make last-minute plans or cancellations.  I think this is a really good way to build relationships, and it's something we might be missing out on in our task-oriented American culture.  It's not always easy for me, but there are things I really like about the "manana" mindset... I think I'm going to learn some important lessons this year about what is really important.