If you have ever lived in or visited Guatemala then I bet you are well aware of the "hora Chapin" ("Guatemalan hour" or less literally the custom of arriving late). Many cultures around the world seem to have similar customs with flexible time windows, but not the United States. The norm in Guatemala is easily 15-30 minutes late (maybe even more)! This can be frustrating trying to plan and carry out meetings. Even when I thought that I was going to arrive at some event in my town super late (about 5 minutes) I would generally arrive out of breath from running only to find out that I was one of the first people there and that said event wouldn't start for a while.
The Peace Corps was one big lesson in learning to calm down a little bit and learn to go with the flow. Since arriving home I have found myself with a propensity to be a little bit late for things. While I am trying hard to shake this bad habit I think that I came out of it with the much better skill of learning how to be flexible, go with the flow, and always have a plan b, c, or d for when plans inevitably change.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because through them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Guatemala? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Guatemala in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Hi Emilio,
DeleteThank you for writing to me. I enjoyed your thoughtful comment. I am unfortunately not in Guatemala anymore (I left in early April), but have passed along your note to a fellow PCV who is still there. I hope they will write to you. Good luck!
Nice.
ReplyDelete