Working out of the country is not as much fun as depicted in books and travel logs. It can certainly be frightening; what if….
Don’t think about the crossing from country to country, or about your visa, passport or luggage being searched; don’t think about not finding your hotel, or heavens to Betsy, miss dinner because you don’t know how to order in another language.
This one time, the architects met me at the airport in Sonora, Mexico and drove me to the jobsite where the workers were ready to learn how to use the latest in flooring installation. I was charged with the chore of teaching them. The highway from the airport was slow moving, as the number of vehicles was overwhelming. I noticed a sign on the side of the highway proclaiming additional lanes will be added in the next few days. There is hope.
It was not difficult to exchange pleasantries prior to the beginning of the work, as I am able to understand local colloquialisms. We had a good start as the workers reluctantly allowed me to show them the use of the latest in installation tools. After their first attempts, once they felt comfortable cutting and pasting and whatever else was needed, they were good to go. Culturally speaking, in Latin countries, a woman doesn’t have the same credibility as a man, but I ignored the initial reluctance and continued working with them.
Lunch and dinner in Latin countries is not at the same hours as it is here in the US. Breakfast may be around 9:30 am; what they call lunch or supper around 2:30 pm and dinner around 8-9 pm. After dinner one goes back to the office and finishes up the work. No such thing as an 8-hour workday. The days are long but rewarding.
The first day after work, dinner was at local BBQ restaurant, where they place the BBQed animal on the middle of the table for all to partake of the meat. There were many patrons dining this day and my host was a local architect everyone knew and loved; it took 2 hours because of the many people coming to our table to chat and pass the time. Other days I either ate alone or some assistant would accompany me.
After the work was done, it was time to come home again. The highway to the airport was the same as I first saw it when arriving from the US a few days before, but this time, there were more lanes of traffic. How did this happen in just a few days? I was dumbfounded as I could not understand how it could be done so quickly.
The driver was kind enough to let me know the government does not bother with extra construction projects, what they had done was to increase the number of lanes by making them narrower, not adding width to the highway. Now, it makes so much more sense to do it this way.
I need to remember not to drive in any of the Latin countries as it is very dangerous to change lanes; if you use your turn signal, everyone around accelerates so not to allow you to change lanes. So now you know why they use VW bugs as taxis in Mexico City. They are easy to move around, and they fit in any space in the streets.
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