Time Zones: Christina vs. Peru

Christina is a very timely sort of a person. It can be a bit unnerving to those of us who take a more casual approach to timeliness.

The local NGO Christina is working with, Kallpa, is building the structure and capacity of the youth employment center and services along with the local municipal government. In order to move things along, occasionally Kallpa and the local officials will sit down to talk things over. Christina was asked to arrange a meeting, which apparently involved sending a formal letter (with signatures of all parties involved, as well as the official seal of Kallpa) to make an ‘appointment’. After some negotiation, the appointment was formally accepted, and added to a large appointment board located in the municipal government’s official’s office.

Signatures, official seals, everything you need to request an appointment…

On the day of the appointed meeting, Christina’s boss Marie traipses across Lima (no small task) and arrives with Christina at the office only to be told that the official was busy and unable to take the meeting. Apparently initial request, the follow-up letter with the appropriate signatures, the resulting negotiation about the time, and the successful inclusion on the appointment board in the municipal office don’t actually count for much if you don’t want to wait around for when people are actually available. The meeting is to be rescheduled.

As another example, tonight we have been invited to a friendly wine and nibbles party. The hostess apparently quite likes wine tasting and has dished out some guidelines as to which wines might be appropriate. All of this sounds pretty normal until you get to the scheduling part. I don’t know the exact wording, but the invite included a line along the lines of ‘wine tasting 9PM Friday’.

This is all well and good, except that people have started to get the hang of how keen Christina can be. The invite went out to everybody, and then our flatmate Maya was given specific instructions by the hostess to pass along: “Please tell Christina not to come at 9.”

Perhaps we should just turn Christina’s watch back an hour?