Very long waiting times in Chile and Argentina and my theories on why

---

One of the most frustrating things I found at first in both Argentina and Chile were the very long waiting times for everything. I jump out of bed at 8am thinking I can RUN up that hill I see in my neighbourhood, RACE back to the hostel to get a shower, JUMP on the metro whilst just POPPING into the supermarket to buy some bread, then get to the museum just at 10am when it first opens then I can BE READY to eat Menu del Dia in a restaurant, QUICKLY pay the bill and then SKIP to the bank to exchange some dollars for pesos.. I must forget these adverbs and replace them with comforting slow words such as CALMLY, PLOD, STROLL and STEADY PACE as in Latin America fast adverbs do not seem to form part of their vocabulary. To do everything mentioned above would take 3 days here and involve a lot of queuing, a lot of water, a lot of patience and a heck of a lot of sun cream.

The biggest causes of queues seem to be incompetent staff in shops who find money and change difficult to count out. They don’t like big notes and as people buy everything on credit here, and I mean even a packet of haribo sweets would be paid for by credit cards because it is how the country works - on credit (which apparently is all paid back one day because 95% of people are employed in Chile so they can pay it back,) What I’ve found exceptional is that even when I go to see a specialist for something (for example a shoe shop) the staff don’t seem to have knowledge about what they are selling, I almost ended up with odd shoes today.

It’s hard to say if this lax behaviour is due to apathy or is just plain incompetence, but for sure it’s certainly not due to maliciousness as on occasions I’ve been given far more extra change than I was due and had to go back to confess. I’ve noticed from my previous trips abroad that countries which have high levels of employment tend to have lazy workers. It could be true here as many Chilean workers here seem unfocussed on their job and as if they don’t give their all to it, whereas I’ve noticed that generally Columbian and Venezuelan immigrants who work in restaurants here (and there are a lot of them) are far more friendly and helpful. Also in Argentina workers were a bit laid back but I put that down to their culture of sleeping all day, partying all night. Then again, the Argentinians generally seemed to do everything with a passion including driving badly, explaining their culture and politics, talking loudly, gesturing ridiculously and almost everybody I met would be enthusiastic about helping me and doing more than was asked of them in their jobs. I remember from my trip to Japan the Japanese always believed in giving their best efforts to everything they did. I admired this attitude a lot and since visiting Japan, I've tried to stick to that way of living ever since, even when I am tired or fed up with my work I try to get my interest back in it as soon as possible. I always think even if you just wash dishes for a living but you love surprises, you can fill the washing up bowl with soapy suds and enjoy not knowing which piece of cutlery you might find next in the bowl ‘Oh it could be a fork, no it feels like a knife.’

In my opinion, work is there to be nurtured not to be despised, and any little pleasure you can find in a job, however small could be a seed of self-development or joy. You never know until you give it your all.

---