I can't draw

Life here, especially in terms of getting anything done, is much more an art than a science. Science depends on assumptions and exact calculations, one step following the other as planned. In many ways I hadn’t realized, ours is a culture of science. We lead crowded, efficient lives, and our time maximization is only possible because we know how long the drive to the store will take, what they will have, and how much it will cost. We know this because we’ve done the same thing dozens of times.

Here though, doing something like traveling to the store to buy bread might produce ten different results if done a dozen times. Art requires patience, creativity, and the knowledge that things are almost never exactly as they were last time. Perhaps ‘art’ is too romantic a term. It’s more like depending on the weather: it follows a general pattern, but you never know. Things fall apart, people show up late or not at all, and this happens all the time. In the States we would call this the ‘x factor,’ but that’s not quite right because it isn’t the one forgotten link in the chain that breaks down. Every factor, previously assured or otherwise, is an ‘if,’ not a ‘when.’

This morning, I was headed to Davíd with Florentino to buy PVC piping for the aquaduct. We needed to get the money from the Aquaduct Comittee’s bank account beforehand, so the treasurer was going to accompany us to the bank. When we went to pick him up at his house this morning, he was in quite a state of surprise. Antonio had apparently forgotten the date. He had no one to watch the house, so he couldn’t go. Bam! The whole day derailed. We were planning on buying the nails we ran out of yesterday as well, so we couldn’t work on the house either.

I felt a little frustrated at first, but I’m no longer too surprised by these types of letdowns, and that takes a lot of the edge off frustration. Maybe my scientific brain is getting soft around the edges. Maybe. More likely, I don’t feel rushed to finish my house like I did a month ago, which keeps my sanity much more even keel. Sara has come and gone, so the dream of finishing the house in time for her arrival is a distant memory. More important to my emotional well-being, I am no longer living with a host family. I started living at the coop when Sara got here and have decided to stay until the house is done. I don’t have that much more privacy than I did at the daycare center, but I can use the indoor shower and cook for myself.

Of four, we have half of a wall done on my house. Flor tells me we should be done this week, but I’m in no rush.