Watching Paint Dry

Reflections from James ...



I have always found the phrase “… like watching paint dry…” to be a curious idiom; however, after spending almost 17 months in a developing country, I find myself intimately aware of this oft used phrase.  While going about my day to day activities in this seemingly timeless part of the world, I have found myself to be a practitioner of the metaphorical pastime of watching freshly applied enamel harden and solidify on a somewhat smooth surface.  From watching an individual take ten minutes to fill out a receipt of payment for services, to watching a clerk in a photocopy establishment spend several minutes to determine how to designate to his desktop computer the number of copies that was needed (a clerk who, incidentally, does this task every day for a living), I have truly learned how to wait.

For example, as I ventured out on a rainy morning to go on a long journey at 5AM, I encountered an obstruction on the dirt road that was used to reach the main road.  A local driver of a passenger van (called a Tro-tro in local parlance) was blocking the way as he washed his car.  When I blew my horn as a signal to be allowed access, he merely waved me away and curtly responded that he was not finished washing his vehicle.  Needless to say visions of ramming my vehicle into his van as he stooped down to rinse his wheels danced through my head.  But, instead my thoughts dwelled on streaks of freshly applied tones of sky blue drying on a pristine surface.

 

Haven't seen any pigs fly, but I have seen
them take a stroll on the beach

To be fair, I am imposing my western standards on the proper use of time on a society that has not developed to the extent that we in the west have achieved.  But, one cannot help but wonder how anything gets done here.  Roads take years to build and structures are left unfinished for decades.  So, the notion of doing something in a timely fashion waxes ephemeral at best here.
 

 

But this is the developing world.

 

 

Well, I have ranted enough and anyway the traffic is moving now, so I can stop keying on my laptop.  Just kidding!