Archive
Lines Are A Cultural Thing
Each Thursday our team hosts a medical clinic in Armenia Bonito. Due to cost, energy and quality control we can only see 40-45 patients each day. Unfortunately, there are often 65-70 people waiting to see us. This means we often must turn away 25-30 people.
But, some of these people have been waiting at the door for over two hours. And, others are not afraid to shove their way to the front, even though they showed up five minutes earlier. We tell the people waiting that we cannot possibly sort out who was there first. Many times it turns into 65 people mobbing us for 40 spots and no way for us to sort out who got their first. The concept of lines, so it would seem, are a very Western concept. In Honduras it is common for people to mob to the front and shove their way in.
We recently started posting instructions and giving speeches about how a line must be formed or nobody will receive service. We have even threatened to leave without treating anybody. Recently the community has solved the problem for us. Our insisting on lines and their enforcement of fairness has started to smooth out a problem that was getting out of hand.
Who ever know how important lines would be to our sense of order and fairness.
