Work and Tea

It has been a busy, crazy week with classes, meetings, activities and on top of that headaches with my new apartment that is out in the countryside - one day there was no water, the next my cooking gas ran out and that night I found myself running after the motorcycle gas guy with my flashlight so he would find my house. The little things make for a full week.

But instead of writing about apartment issues, or new classes, I had this cultural exchange this week that was so surprising and funny. Our fourth leadership workshop was held this past Thursday. We talked about Vision. It was a great session - and I thought to make it even more great I will offer the women some fruit tea from Minnesota and crackers while they work on their personal vision homework. We were mid-way through the session when I served the tea and crackers. As soon as cups were on the table, everyone put their pens and pencils down. Instead of motivating the women to do more work (while snacking), their work took a complete stand still. "We can't work and eat at the same time," were Aida's exact words. As a die hard American I was ready to push them to continue, but thought, you have a point. Let's enjoy our tea.

When we finished our tea, we started again on our vision homework, not multiple tasking by any means. I have learned my lesson - don't mix tea and work in Peru.

Paz ~ Nora