Flexibility in the name of the game

Those of you who know me well know that I am a pretty organized person, some might say I am slightly neurotic. I like to make lists, plan everything, maintain good communication at all times, show up early to all meetings, etc. One of the most valuable things my parents have sent me since being in Honduras is a beautiful pink planner which is one of my most prized possessions (too bad I can’t insure it). Anyway, those of you who have ever been to a developing country or have ever even heard of how things work in a developing country probably know that things here are not always neat and organized and planned and clear and prompt. For a slightly neurotic person like me dealing with this cultural difference has been one of my biggest challenges.
A few weeks ago a fellow volunteer e-mailed me and invited me to a planning meeting to be held August 7th-10th a few hours from site. She would send more details later. Well, Monday the 6th arrived and I hadn’t heard anything so I e-mailed her to follow up. Tuesday the 7th (the day before the meeting was to be held) my project manager gave me a call to tell me that he was in a nearby site and wanted to visit me in my site the following day (Wednesday the 8th, the first day of the planning meeting). I told him I couldn’t because I had to go to a meeting. He then informed me that that meeting had been canceled but I would be going to another meeting to lead a training at the end of August. Well, all this was news to me and I was pretty taken aback. So, my meeting was canceled and my boss was coming the next day and wanted me to set up meetings with all of my counterparts so he could talk to them.
I had to make a decision, was I going to get pissed off at my boss for canceling a meeting and not telling me and then dropping in on me with one day of notice and informing me that I would be leading a workshop that I didn’t know about? Or was I going to just go with the flow and be adaptable and amenable. I decided that if I got pissed off every time something like this happened (which will, undoubtedly, be a frequent occurrence) I would drive myself crazy.
My boss showed up and we had a wonderful morning. Without having made any appointments ahead of time we just stopped in to chat with all the people that I have been working with and were able to talk to most of them immediately. At first I was worried because I hadn’t had time to call and tell them that we would be coming, but the beautiful thing is that none of them cared that we just dropped in, because that is how things work here!
Patience, flexibility and adaptability are three traits that I seriously want to cultivate in myself over the next two years (although my boss told me today he thought I would be staying for more than two years, so we’ll see how long it takes me to learn some patience…). Instead of getting upset that things change at the last minute or people show up without any warning or forget to tell me about an important anything, I should just learn how to deal with things on the spot as they come up and become a wonderful problem solver.