Difficulties in developing countries can also be quite liberating

Our most reliable driver was supposed to arrive at 9:30 for our trip to Gulu; it is now 11:50; we wait. He texted us an hour ago. He left his driving permit at home and had to get it, “c u soon.”

I had a lunch appointment at 3:30 on Sunday, 30 minutes away from my house. I called five drivers. All were busy and “20 minutes away.” Finally, one came. After sitting in a “jam” (they don’t need to use traffic to describe it), I arrived at 5:10.

I went to get mobile internet for my computer at the telcom center. The technicians were on my computer and in and out of the room for an hour and a half trying to figure out how to install the necessary software on my Mac. They were dumbfounded. We restarted the computer. The internet worked.

All of this can happen in the US. All of it does (I know I owned a Gateway laptop). But the regularity of which it happens here means work arounds are common.

Meeting times are fluid, appointments are flexible and reservations dates are estimates. Some of it is a necessity. When you miss the once daily bus in the morning because it got full and left at 5:30am and not after 6am as it usually does, you wait. When the phone network is down or rain washes away the road, accommodations must be made.

It creates incentive for people to focus on the here and now. If your mobile phone rings you answer it; if your appointment is there you talk to him and if food is in front of you eat it. And for all the frustrations of planning, it is quite liberating. Such focus on the present shortens your “to do list.” Simply, when you don't have emails in your inbox and messages in your voice mail there’s less stress.

Of course, I am now late for my 3pm meeting and will likely not meet the government official I had hoped, but someone else who did not make an appointment probably got to.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map