Indian Work Ethic

I should start this out by saying that some people in this country work really hard. I can name a handful of them, but there are a lot of people here, so that leaves a lot of room for the ones that “work.” Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s the men that seem to do most of the “work” around here, and women are the ones that actually work-work. (Though that is not completely true either, as women in administration here tend to be a legalistic nightmare. That’s a story for another time).

Case and point: The men that are painting our flat right now. They “work” from 9 to 5, but that’s a very loose description of their hours. Let me tell you what 9 to 5 really means. It means they will show up at 9:40 and they will not start painting until almost 10:30. Around 11 they will tell you they want a chai break. They will have a 20 minute chai break. At 1:45, they say it is their lunch time for one hour. At 3:15 they will actually start painting again. At 4:30 they will say they are done and will take another chai break. I’m sure getting paid by the day would be a great motivator to drag out work as long as possible unless you unexpectedly have two crazy, loud white girls hassling you telling you they aren’t going to put up with you cheating them and that sitting around on chai breaks doesn’t count as working. On the bright side, I’m getting better and better at making chai.

Another example: the man we need to hook up our landline/internet. Apparently it is possible to drag this process out for almost a month with no end in sight. Every time we go to the office or call them, not surprisingly, the man is conveniently “working” from home that day (read: apparently every day).

When I first got here a year ago I wondered why in the world things never seemed to get done. How could this be possible? I had heard countless times before I got here to not expect things quickly, how much extra time things can take, and had been told I was going to have to let the “J” (Myers-Briggs, anyone?) inside of me relax or I would go crazy. Which is totally true, by the way. If you try to stay organized and make plans here and expect them to actually happen, you will probably lose your mind. Now I know that anything that gets done here is by the grace of God whether it takes a week or a month.

I realized today I’ve slowly started to bend to the culture this way. My phone bill was definitely due two days ago. Oops? All I have to do to pay it is take an auto to the mall about 5 minutes away and go to the self service kiosk and type in my phone number and put the money in the machine. Seriously one of the easiest things to do here. And afterward I will get no less than 4 text messages notifying me that I used a kiosk, my bill has been paid, the amount that I paid, and thank you! from Vodafone. But somehow, this keeps slipping my mind because it is not a top priority to me here. In America I would have been mortified, but here? Meh, that kiosk is still going to be there tomorrow. I’m sure of it. Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for my chai break…