I have every intention of updating this more often and lots of things to tell, but somehow the Ecuadorian pace of life is getting to me. ¨Mañana..." we say, everything can wait until tomorrow. And that's the way it really works here. Everyone says that, and everyone waits. They even have a single word for the English phrase "you're taking forever..." or they add no and it means "it won't take very long". It's ironic and very telling, I think, that they have a single word to describe "taking FOREVER...". It must be because it's a word that serves an important purpose.

It makes a lot of sense because everything is slow. Service at restaurants, for example. They don't depend on tips here, and in fact no one really tips, so there's no reason to hurry up for your customers. They are late for everything, parties, any type of social event, dinners. The other week we went to a birthday/graduation party and the time was set for 1pm to 3pm. It was a semi-formal event with a sit down lunch and so I assumed everyone would be on time because of the nature of the party. Boy was I wrong. The guests trickled in from about 1:30 until the last ones arrived at 2:45 with no excuse as to why they were so late, and we ate a little after 3. It's very strange to me that being two hours late for a party is completely acceptable, especially when everyone is waiting to eat. The same thing happened when I was supposed to do something with my friend the other day and she told me she'd come by at 6:30. I was all ready to go.... and at 8pm there she was. Then we picked up another friend, went back to my house, had a snack, talked a bit and about 9 we went to do what we were going to do at 6:30. I'm more or less getting used to it, I don't think I'll every really be used to it, but now I just assume all our plans will take place an hour after the time they told me we were going to do something.

The fact that there really is no schedule makes life a little easier, I suppose, but it also explains why the government and banks and everything else don't seem to work quite as they should. Also... my host family told me if I think life here moves at a slow pace I should have seen it fifteen years ago. Interesting...